New Zealand News - NZ - 'P' epidemic: Forensic labs can't keep up

A question of evidence

The growing case load of methamphetamine cases is backlogging in NZ courts as forensic labs can't keep up with the case load and the drug detection agency ESR wants to "streamline" the evidential reporting standards required.

Cases are cited where accused may have to go on a waiting list for a trial due to lab evidence not yet being processed.

The growth of methamphetamine laboratory charges is startling, from 9 in 2000 to 180 last year. This is dwarfed by an estimated 300 cases for the first six months this year. The police campaign to stamp out P labs is led by a media driven public perception that it must be stamped out. There is no question that it should.

Lawyers were warning of case backlogs in courts last year as the police responded to the huge growth industry. The trouble with the backlog is that prisons will fill with the guilty and the innocent. By the time the trials commence the innocent will not be as innocent as when they were caught up in the swoop.

Cases the police are prosecuting may become more liable to objections of injustice, and so the guilty may walk free. Urgent attention to the mismatch between Government Depts is necessary. It is a train wreak. Someone needs to pay attention to the train lines and signals rather than just emptying out the bodies from crushed carriages.