New and emerging drugs in state crime lab evidence: Quarters 1 and 2, 2018
Data source, utility, and limitations
Crime lab data are a partial indicator of the supply of illegal drugs or prescription drugs that are controlled substances and suspected of being purchased or sold illegally. The data presented here are the results of the Washington State Patrol’s Crime Lab chemistry testing of samples submitted by law enforcement. While the data provide important insights into the supply of drugs, in part due to the use of precise chemical testing which indicates exactly which substance is present, they also have numerous important limitations that are described at the bottom of this page.
On this page, quarterly data provided by the Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau are used to identify drugs that appear to be increasing in law enforcement seizures in the most recent quarter. (Data are preliminary and will change. For more on the data, see the details at the end of the page).
Emerging drugs in the first quarter of 2018
There were no emergent trends statewide in the crime lab data for the first quarter. Different counties had small numerical jumps (but more than 100%) in different drugs over the average quarter in 2017:
Mason County saw 3 cases test positive for benzodiazepines in the first quarter of 2018, after having 2 cases all of 2017 and 4 all of 2016. (This also represents a significant jump in the overarching depressants category.) Benzodiazepines are a class of drugs prescribed for their sleep-inducing, anti-anxiety, anti-convulsant, sedating, and/or muscle-relaxing qualities. Valium (diazepam), Librium (chlordiazepoxide), and Ativan (lorazepam) are examples of benzodiazepines. They are frequently present in drug poisoning deaths with other drugs, particularly other central nervous system depressants such as opioids and alcohol.
Buprenorphine: 4 counties saw greater than 100% increases in the number of cases positive for buprenorphine, a medication most commonly used to treat opioid use disorder.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Morphine: Yakima County had 3 cases of morphine after 0 such cases in 2017 and 3 in 2016.
Fentanyl: Franklin County saw 2 cases of fentanly (but no cases of fentanyl analogues) in the first quarter of 2018, versus 3 total in 2017 and 1 each in 2015 and 2016.
Heroin: After 7 cases in 2017, but 12 in 2016, Walla Walla County had 7 cases test positive for heroin in the first quarter of 2018.
Cannabis: While cannabis arrests and crime lab cases are at lower levels than before I-502, there remain arrests. The single case for Lincoln County in the map below is not much of an increase, but Lincoln had a total of 8 cannabis-positive cases from 2014 through 2017. The substantial increase in Grays Harbor County appears to be related to illegal grow operations associated with non-residents.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Cocaine: Cowlitz County had 3 cases of cocaine in the first quarter of 2018 versus 4 cases in all of 2017 and 6 in 2016.
Emerging drugs in the second quarter of 2018
There were no emergent trends statewide in the crime lab data for the second quarter. Different counties had small (but more than 100%) jumps in different drugs over the average quarter in 2017:
Whatcom County saw 4 cases test positive for phenethylamines, all either MDMA or MDA. After 7 cases of phenethylamines in each of 2017 and 2016, the county has had 7 in the first half of 2018. Methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA (known as "Ecstasy") and methylenedioxyamphetamine or MDA (sometimes known as "Sally") are the most common types of phenethylamines, which are consumed recreationally for their mood- and energy-enhancing properties.
Buprenorphine: Snohomish County (3 cases) and Walla Walla County (2 cases) saw greater than 100% increases in the number of cases positive for buprenorphine, a medication most commonly used to treat opioid use disorder.
Morphine: The 2 cases in Kitsap County in the second quarter of 2018 equals the total number of cases positive for morphine in each of the previous 3 years, but there were also 0 cases in the first quarter.
Fentanyl: Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid many times more powerful than heroin or morphine. Here we highlight cases of fentanyl itself, which is available by prescription and often used in surgery, and not any of the many analogues. The single case in Grant County represents the first case of any fentanyl associated with the county since 2011. More populous Pierce County has had 2 fentanyl cases in 2018 after 1 case in 2017 (plus two cases testing positive for fentanyl analogues), 4 in 2016, and 1 in 2015.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Cocaine: Island County had 3 cocaine cases in the second quarter of 2018 (plus 1 in the first quarter) after averaging 2.4 positive cases per year from 2010 through 2017.
As we describe elsewhere, there are many limitations of the data, including: county being an imperfect geographic unit to report the data; changes in law enforcement policy, practice and resources over time; and often substantial lags between when drugs were seized by law enforcement and when they were submitted to the lab and then further lags due to testing and reporting.
Truly new drugs present a challenge for crime lab testing: the need for a standard to which to compare the lab sample for identification. Cannabimimetics and novel psychoactive drugs (for example, variations of MDMA), for example, are constantly changing. Often when a particular formulation gains enough notoriety--usually, being made illegal or causing a widely reported death--to warrant a standards company producing a chemical standard and a crime lab buying it, the formulation is changed. Thus, time trends in identified crime lab cases do not capture the initial rise of such a novel substance, but at best its peak and decline. Here we just focus on significant counts of new or rarely-before-seen substances.
In addition to the above issues with crime lab case counts, there are difficulties with reliably assigning a case to a particular quarter. First, the date entered as the received date for a particular case may be a few days after when the case actually arrived at the lab, which might put it into the next quarter. This date clearly comes after the actual arrest. Furthermore, testing takes time, and so results may not come until a subsequent quarter. Sometimes the initial request is for only some of the evidence from a case to be tested, and so the other items might be tested later at prosecutor request, adding further delay between submission and result.
In sum, "quarter" does not mean when law enforcement seized the drug, and counts will likely change. All data presented here are preliminary.
Please refer to the other crime lab data pages for other insight:
saw 3 cases test positive for benzodiazepines in the first quarter of 2018, after having 2 cases all of 2017 and 4 all of 2016. (This also represents a significant jump in the overarching depressants category.) Benzodiazepines are a class of drugs prescribed for their sleep-inducing, anti-anxiety, anti-convulsant, sedating, and/or muscle-relaxing qualities. Valium (diazepam), Librium (chlordiazepoxide), and Ativan (lorazepam) are examples of benzodiazepines. They are frequently present in drug poisoning deaths with other drugs, particularly other central nervous system depressants such as opioids and alcohol. 
had 3 cases of morphine after 0 such cases in 2017 and 3 in 2016.
saw 2 cases of fentanly (but no cases of fentanyl analogues) in the first quarter of 2018, versus 3 total in 2017 and 1 each in 2015 and 2016.
had 7 cases test positive for heroin in the first quarter of 2018.
had 3 cases of cocaine in the first quarter of 2018 versus 4 cases in all of 2017 and 6 in 2016.
