DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nebraska - The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Services Bureau now offers a test that will allow the laboratory to distinguish between hemp and marijuana in accordance with current Nebraska State Statutes. The test will be used to confirm that a plant material is marijuana if it contains more than approximately 1% THC.
The procedure was developed based on a method used by the Drug Enforcement Agency and a full validation process was recently completed at the DCSO lab to demonstrate that the procedure is reliable, accurate and meets customer needs. The procedure was developed in accordance with ANSI National Accreditation Board Forensic Accreditation requirements and falls under the lab’s current scope of accreditation.
In addition, the procedure was developed to employ instrumentation that the laboratory already utilizes and, thus, is a cost effective solution to meet the needs established by current law. The procedure allows for the identification of marijuana in a manner that is more time conservative than other procedures that were considered and, thus, is not expected to negatively impact the drug testing turn-around times for laboratory analysis.
The Sheriff’s lab conducts drug analysis for more than 20 municipal, county and federal law enforcement agencies.