COUNTY DRUG LAB OPEN FOR CASES

Beaufort County Sheriff's deputies will have a powerful new weapon against
drug-related crimes starting today. After several months of waiting, the
Beaufort County Drug Lab will begin looking at cases today as chemist
Renita Berry prepares to tackle the backlog of 400 drug cases.

"We're going to get those back from SLED and I'll work on those cases
here," Berry said. Since January, Berry has been working on some Beaufort
County drug cases at the State Law Enforcement Division lab in Columbia.
Today she'll begin work in the new lab at the Law Enforcement Center.

The lab has been under construction for several months. Sheriff P.J. Tanner
wanted to open it in October, but ran into some obstacles.

One concerned the purchase of a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, the
main instrument used for analyzing drugs. The Sheriff's Office wanted a
more expensive machine, but the one they got was compatible with labs
around the state.

"That's important because if there is a problem with the machine or I am
having trouble on a particular case, I can take it to another lab and have
the evidence analyzed by the same type of machine," Berry said.

Also, the refit of the room took longer than expected. Berry said they
expected it to take only a day or two, but the electricians had a lot of
work because of the equipment needed for the room.

With the drug lab and an in-house chemist, Sheriff's Office officials
expect cases to move quickly. The lab also will be used by other law
enforcement agencies in the 14th Judicial Circuit, which also includes
Jasper, Hampton, Colleton and Allendale counties.

In order to move a case forward, police must have a positive identification
of the controlled substance, said Master Sgt. Marvin Morrison, commander of
the Beaufort County Drug Task Force.

"Until you've got (drug evidence) qualified, the solicitor can't go
forward," Morrison said.

In the past, waiting for test results to come back from the SLED lab has
caused some cases to fall through.

"You lose cases because witnesses go missing or officers move on to other
departments," Morrison said. "It's very frustrating."

The drug lab comes after more than a year of work by Tanner to get funding
for a Beaufort County facility. Tanner said the lab will give law
enforcement the ability to have drug cases ready for the solicitor in 30
days or less.

"Establishing a drug lab in house will exponentially speed up the judicial
process for our county's drug cases," Tanner said. "That means more local
drug dealers will be behind bars sooner versus back out selling as we wait
to prosecute them."

That's something Morrison hopes will affect the drug problem in the county.

"Once they see faster adjudication of cases, I think there will be a drop
in the number of dealers in Beaufort County," Morrison said.