DRUG-TESTING DEVICE AWAITS ITS DAY IN COURT

HIGH POINT -- About the size of a large shoe box, the NTX 2000 looks
like an innocuous metal box, but High Point police say it could
eliminate the department's reliance on state labs for testing drugs.

That's if it holds up in court.

Because it's a new technology, it is not automatically admissible as
evidence, said Howard Neumann, a Guilford County assistant district
attorney.

The courts need to rule that the methodology is reliable before it
can become an acceptable way to test drugs in the state, he said.

Neumann likened the process to the acceptance of DNA evidence in the
courts. The first time DNA evidence was submitted, it was challenged,
he said. But the science behind DNA has proven reliable and is now
commonly used in court.

So far, the NTX 2000's results have not been challenged in
court.

The device uses 3-D fluorescent technology to test for traces of
heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine in less than five
minutes, said Douglas Branch , marketing director for Nar-Test
Technologies, the Morrisville company that sells the device.

Operating the NTX 2000 requires little training and no scientific
background. The operator takes a drug sample and places it in the box
for analysis.

The analysis appears as a detailed graph on an attached computer
screen, according to NarTest's Web site.

Only a handful of North Carolina counties have submitted the results
as evidence in court.

All of those cases have been settled through plea agreements, he
said.

Branch and his company are waiting for the results to be
challenged.

The company has spent the past two-and-a-half years collecting data to
prove its accuracy.

NarTest has loaned the device to several law enforcement agencies
across the state, but only two -- the High Point Police Department and
the Iredell County Sheriff's Office -- have purchased one.

What led High Point to spend $30,000 in grant money to buy a legally
untested device?

In the past, High Point sent confiscated drugs to the State Bureau of
Investigation's lab in Raleigh for testing.

"Our turnaround time with drug cases in Raleigh was about 14 months,"
said Jane Aswell, a police evidence technician in High Point. "And we
just kept getting cases backed up and backed up. We had officers
losing cases."

About two years ago, police Chief Jim Feely said he met with
then-Greensboro police Chief David Wray and SBI Director Robin
Pendergraft to discuss delays at the SBI's main lab.

"She told us that they were inundated with drug cases from all over
the state, especially drug cases that may not even go to trial," Feely
said. "And we began talking and said, 'Well, what if we could relieve
you of some of that load?'"

Feely said it was Wray who discovered the NarTest device.

Originally they had planned to purchase one to share, but Feely said
he realized High Point's workload required it to have its own.

In November 2005, High Point conducted a b eta test, in which 60
drug samples that had been tested by the SBI lab were retested using
the NTX 2000. The results matched those of the SBI lab, Aswell said.

In April 2006, NarTest loaned High Point a device until it found the
money to pay for it.

Between April and December, Aswell said she ran 352 drug tests with
the equipment.

The drugs were from ongoing investigations, and the results were
submitted as evidence in court cases, Aswell said.

None of the cases has reached the trial phase, during which the
results could be challenged.

Some charges have been dropped, while others ended in a plea
agreement, she said.

The samples were also taken to NarTest's certified forensic lab, where
its chemists verified the results using the SBI's drug test.

The results were verified in case they are challenged and not upheld
in court, Aswell said.

In the past few years, the SBI has increased the staff at its labs,
reducing the back log of drug and other testing.

High Point officials said they still think buying the NTX 2000 was a
good move.

"These are things that we need to use to take some of the load off the
SBI so they can focus on other things, as well," district attorney
Neumann said.