POLICE DEVICE IDS DRUGS IN MINUTES

Severe Backlog For SBI Testing

Soap frequently passes for cocaine or crack in the streets. Drug
users notice they've been duped as soon as they try to light up or
snort the Ivory, because soap doesn't burn and doesn't produce a
high. But police officers usually don't know until they receive lab
results. In North Carolina, that can take a while.

A testing device developed by a young Morrisville company, which is
largely bankrolled by one of Estonia's wealthiest businessmen, may
help law enforcement officers statewide catch up in the fight against
drugs. The device, which has yet to be named, was invented in the
Baltic. It is a box the size of three laptop computers stacked on top
of each other, and it uses fluorescent light to detect and identify
even small amounts of chemicals within minutes. Similar technology is
used in medicine and to clean up environmental contamination.

"It helps your investigation," said Lt. Stevie Salmon of the Halifax
County Sheriff's Department, which has used a prototype of NarTest
Technologies' device for about eight months.

The device promises to help undercover officers working drug stings
speed up prosecution.

NarTest plans to start selling the device in May. The projected
$40,000 cost would cover training, technical support and a computer.
Doug Branch, NarTest's marketing director, aims to get the first
paying customer in North Carolina. "I wanted this technology launched
in my state," said Branch, a retired SBI firearms and tool marks expert.

Three popular drug trafficking routes, Interstates 95, 85 and 40, run
through the state. To analyze drug samples, most police and sheriff's
departments across the state rely on the N.C. State Bureau of
Investigation's crime lab. But the lab is so backlogged it can take
three years to get a case to trial. That has delayed prosecution and
convictions. Cases are dismissed. Drug dealers are released just to
be arrested again and again while charges are pending.

Law enforcement agencies in High Point, Greensboro, Wilmington and
Cary have either tested NarTest's prototype or shown interest in it,
Branch said. "We're excited about it," said Capt. David Wulff, who
oversees the criminal investigations division at the Cary Police
Department. Cary officers working drug cases now rely on the SBI.
With NarTest's device, "we could take care of our own here," Wulff said.

The first court cases in which officers used the NarTest device have
been filed in Halifax County. But like any other technology that is
introduced in the justice system, NarTest's is expected to be
challenged by defense attorneys. Branch and Wayne Baird, NarTest's
chief executive, know that. Baird is the former head of sales at
Forensic Technology, a Canadian company that introduced the
Integrated Ballistic Identification System in 1993. Just one year
later, the SBI bought one of the systems after Branch, who was still
working with the agency at the time, lobbied for it. The ballistic
identification system is a database that allows technicians to link
crimes by comparing bullets and casings found at crime scenes or
test-fired from recovered weapons. Baird met Branch then, and they
became friends. When Baird learned of the technology being used in
Estonia, he formed NarTest to market the technology. Branch was the
first employee Baird hired. Based on their experience with the
ballistic identification system, Baird and Branch have set up a
system to meet challenges the NarTest device is expected to encounter.

The company has experts who will support the technology in court.
Until the device gains acceptance, NarTest also backs up each felony
drug case with a traditional, more-complicated chemical analysis done
at its forensic lab in Morrisville, Branch said.

"We will not take a chance of losing a felony case because of our
technology," he said.

In the two years since NarTest was founded, scientists at the
company's Morrisville headquarters have collaborated with software
developers in Estonia to fine-tune the device. It can now distinguish
marijuana from other plant leaves and detect even small amounts of
cocaine. Work is finishing on adding heroin and methamphetamine to
the drugs the device can identify. Oxycodone, a prescription
painkiller that is a favorite among drug users, is next.
Pharmaceutical companies could use the technology in drug development
and manufacturing, Branch said. But for now, NarTest is focusing on
illegal drugs.