UP IN SMOKE: POLICE BURN EVIDENCE FROM OLD DRUG CASES

FLORENCE -- The plastic melted in seconds from the intense heat. Dry and
brown from years of being stored, the marijuana plants popped like pine
needles in a forest fire.

Thirty minutes later, a group of Florence police officers saw years of work
go up in smoke.

But they didn't care.

Making room in their evidence vault, Florence officers Friday afternoon
burned a cache of drugs that included 200 pounds of marijuana, 4 kilograms
of cocaine and thousands of prescription pills, said Florence Capt. Spence
Butler.

The drugs, seized since 1992, filled the bed of a pickup. "You name it;
it's there," Butler said looking over 11 large trash bags. "These drugs
can't do anymore damage."

The drugs came from cases cleared in the past decade. Some were routine
drug busts in which officers seized drug paraphernalia. Other evidence,
such as the drugs from Operation Copycat drug bust in 1995, remain part of
station lore.

The drugs were burned in a gas furnace at a Florence business that police
asked not be identified because of the publicity.

As the evidence officer, Florence investigator Bob Freeman was charged with
the hazardous task of throwing the drugs through the furnace's small metal
doors. Four Florence officers provided security and accompanied Freeman as
witnesses to the burn.

Near the furnace, some store employees seemed mesmerized by the fire and
the smell from the piles of burning marijuana.

"That's a lot of money," said one young man, taking a break from his duties
to watch the drug incineration.

The street value is estimated at more than $1 million, but for Freeman the
burn also signified more than crime. Many of the drugs involved arrests
with teenagers and connections to other drug-related crimes, such as
burglaries, he said.

"We are dealing with destroyed lives every time we deal with one of these
cases," Freeman said.