Lost drugs

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: May 19, 2008

The drugs are in the mail. Or are they?
Eden police and Rockingham County prosecutors were waiting for the illicit drugs, 21 rocks of crack cocaine, but never received them from the State Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab in Raleigh. The SBI was testing the drugs, which is routine.
What isn’t routine – or should not be – is sending illegal drugs through first-class mail, an act that for private individuals would result in felony charges and jail time. What happened to the drugs remains unclear, though we know Eden police sent them by certified mail – requiring a signature upon receipt – and the SBI sent them via first class mail, which is neither tracked nor insured.
“I know they (the drugs) were sent from the SBI crime lab after testing, but I know they were never received back here locally,” DA Phil Berger Jr. told staff writer Heather Smith.
The District Attorney got a conviction despite the absence of an important piece of evidence, an indication that Eden police officers and prosecutors did a good job throughout the judicial process – from arrest to trial. In this case, however, the SBI dropped the proverbial ball.
Eden police spent hours – maybe even days—searching for the drugs that never arrived, and prosecutors had to work around the missing evidence.
It doesn’t matter whether the finger points squarely at the SBI or the U.S. Postal Service, police officers have better things to do than search for missing evidence that another agency has lost.
The N.C. attorney general should immediately take note of this case and change the rules in regard to handling and returning evidence.
The practice of sending illegal drugs through first class mail surely surprised many people. Overall, the postal service does of good job of processing and distributing mail. But postal workers – not unlike the rest of us – aren’t perfect. Stuff happens.
“As far as items becoming lost in our system, yes, it does happen,” said Douglas Bem, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Problem is, this wasn’t a birthday card for Aunt Margaret. The package contained illegal drugs, and there is no excuse for losing them.  The goal is to get them off the street, not into the hands of who knows whom?