EXPERTS ACCREDIT DEA LABS

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

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.