SCIENTISTS AND POLICE TEAM UP TO CREATE A DNA DATABASE OF MARIJUANA TO STEM
TRAFFICKING

MERIDEN, Conn. -- State forensic scientists are taking the war on drugs to
the molecular level.

Researchers are compiling a database of DNA from marijuana seized by
authorities in an attempt to track the nation's pot distribution network
from grower to smoker.

Over the past three years, scientists at the state Forensic Science
Laboratory have mapped the genetic profile of about 600 marijuana samples
taken from around New England.

Forensic experts believe efforts like this represent the future of forensic
science, which for years has been focused on the analysis of human evidence
like blood, semen and hair.

Using a single marijuana bud seized anywhere in the world, police would be
able to quickly deduce whether a suspect is a homegrown dope dealer or part
of an international cartel.

"We don't know all of the frontiers yet," said Kenneth E. Melson, president
of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the U.S. Attorney for
Virginia. "As our experience and capabilities increase, forensic science
can be used any number of areas we haven't even thought of yet."

The use of the technique is built upon two guiding principles: Genetic
material does not lie, and drug dealers always try to grow the most potent
marijuana possible.

Waiting for marijuana seeds to grow into plants takes too long for
high-level dealers who move thousands of pounds at a time, police say.
Instead, dealers usually plant cuttings from their most potent plants.

That results in a shorter growing period and ensures top-quality drugs in
every harvest. But it also means an entire marijuana crop is comprised of
just a few plants, cloned over and over. Genetically those plants are
identical.

An officer who makes a drug bust in Connecticut might normally have no
idea, however, that the pot came from the same harvest as a load seized on
a California highway. DNA pot profiles can help make those connections.

But not everyone is convinced that marijuana dealing should be the cutting
edge of forensic science.

"It's a huge, monumental waste of taxpayer dollars," said Allen St. Pierre,
executive director that National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana
Laws Foundation.

Law enforcement officials, however, believe a genetic database could give
police another advantage over creative drug dealers, who have concocted
some ingenious growing and trafficking techniques.

"Certainly, if they're able to do enough fingerprinting to tell that this
load came from same field as another load, we can begin to show patterns
and trends," said Michael Turner, special agent in charge of the San
Diego's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office.

"If they could do it, it'd be one more tool in the arsenal."

The database being developed in Connecticut is not nearly large enough to
begin tracking marijuana nationwide. But Heather Miller Coyle, a
Connecticut forensic scientist, said if the state's $340,000 federal grant
is renewed next year, she hopes federal agencies will begin sending their
samples for analysis.

Research assistant Eric Carita is responsible for bringing the genetic
signatures into a searchable database. On his computer screen each sample
looks like a stock market chart, punctuated with distinct peaks and valleys.

A computer program converts that plot into a long, unique string of ones
and zeros. If the computer matches that number to one already in the
system, the samples are identical.

Officials hope the effort will pay off in the courtroom. A court case
pending in Connecticut Superior Court will be the state's first attempt to
get marijuana DNA admitted as evidence. Police have not laid out the
details of that case, but scientists say DNA data suggests that two drug
operations were actually part of one organization.

Coyle said she hopes that courtroom acceptance of human DNA evidence will
make it easier to introduce plant DNA data. Scientists can even print out
the DNA plots from Carita's computer and show a jury that two samples are
identical.

There are hurdles. While a genetic match can nearly guarantee that a
suspect was at a crime scene, a plant DNA match does not by itself prove
that two growing operations are related. When combined other evidence,
however, officials hope DNA data can help eliminate reasonable doubt.

The DNA mapping technique cannot be used to track more dangerous drugs like
cocaine and heroin. Though both are plant-based narcotics, organic material
is eliminated during their synthesis.

On the Net:

http://www.state.ct.us/dps/DSS/forensic.htm