DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY LABS REACCREDITED BY OUTSIDE BOARD

WASHINGTON -- The Drug Enforcement Administration's system of eight
drug laboratories received accreditation from outside forensic experts
yesterday.

The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory
Accreditation Board certified the scientific work and procedures at
the laboratories for a second time.

They were first accredited in 1994, but reaccreditation requires a
full review by the accrediting board.

The DEA operates full laboratories in Chicago; Dallas; McLean, Va.;
Miami; New York; San Diego; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C. It
also has satellite labs in Kansas City, Mo., and San Juan, Puerto
Rico. It will begin using its first mobile lab next year.

The Chicago lab moved to a new facility in 1994.

Later this year, the agency will begin renovation of the San Francisco
lab and break ground on replacements for the labs in McLean, Miami,
San Diego and Washington.

In 1996, the labs received 47,739 suspected controlled substances for
analysis.

It also prepares thousands of fingerprint exhibits and hundreds of
thousands of photograph exhibits for trials each year.

The more famous FBI crime laboratory received its first accreditation
by ASCLD/LAB earlier this year after the Justice Department inspector
general issued a report critical of its scientific work and court
testimony last year.