Question

The police collected a white powder from a suspected drug dealer and sent it to your laboratory for testing. You, a forensic toxicologist at the laboratory, were called to testify that this substance was identified as cocaine. Briefly (in several paragraphs) address each of the following questions:

• What sort of evidence would you present if the defense attorney suggested that the sample you analyzed was not the sample seized by the police?

• Suppose the sample was analyzed by GCMS. What sort of information would you give the jury about the analytical method? How would you demonstrate that you did not have a false positive result?

• What, if anything, would you change in the analytical method if you were examining the defendant's urine rather than the powder for cocaine?

Answer 1