NEW REPORT CALLS FOR MORATORIUM ON USE OF MOST WIDELY USED FIELD DRUG TESTS

Report Entitled 'False Positives Equal False Justice' Reveals that
the Most Widely Used Field Test for Identifying Marijuana and other
Drugs Tests Positive on Non-Illegal Substances

Earlier this week, the Marijuana Policy Project and Mintwood Media
Collective released a new report exposing faulty drug tests used by
law enforcement in the U.S. and Canada. The study, entitled "False
Positives Equal False Justice," reveals that the NIK NarcoPouch
908/Duquenois-Levine Reagent field test kit, the most widely used
field test for identifying marijuana, as well as the majority of
other drug test kits used as the basis for arrest and prosecution by
law enforcement have an unacceptably high rate of rendering false
positives. Read the report at http://mpp.org/

Rob Kampia, Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Project,
explained their position, "In terms of policy recommendations, it's
real simple, no one should be using these faulty field tests, they
should be thrown out and the company that's making them should
probably be put out of business." Natural soap, chocolate and
newspaper, among other household items, all will test positive for
marijuana and other drugs such as GHB, yet these kits continue to be
used in both arrests and prosecutions nationwide. Kampia continued,
"In our society we have the principle that you are supposed to be
innocent until proven guilty, these tests turn that on its head."

Dr. Omar Bagasra, director of the South Carolina Center for
Biotechnology at Claflin University commented on the experiments he
conducted for the report. "While testing the specificity of the KN
Reagent test kits with 42 non-marijuana substances, I observed that
70% of these tests rendered a false positive."

The report documents that law enforcement officials, forensic drug
analysts, and prosecutors knowingly employ the flawed
Duquenois-Levine and KN Reagent tests as well as mere conclusory
police reports to wrongfully prosecute and convict millions of
individuals for anti-marijuana law violations. These wrongful
prosecutions and convictions violate Supreme Court rulings,
specifically Jackson v. Virginia and Daubert v. Dow Merrell
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which prohibit the use of inaccurate,
nonspecific tests and/or conclusory reports because they do not prove
the presence of marijuana in a seized substance.

Forensics expert and author of the report, John Kelly writes in the
Executive Summary, "It is imperative that law enforcement agencies
take notice and voluntarily end the use of these flawed drug tests.
The essential need of protecting the innocent must outweigh the
convenience of a field drug test that only gives accurate information
some of the time."

To view video of experiments of these tests and other clips from a
March 3 press conference about the report, please go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djXVnmrlKvE