I didn’t read the marijuana thread so maybe this was covered there.
In movies whenever the cops suspect a substance is cocaine, they put a bit in their mouth, crunch their eyes like they are concentrating real hard, then book the suspect. Is this dramatic flair for the movies? Do cops really do that? I have to believe you would need more proof than what it tastes like.
I suppose there is a recognizable taste to it, but more likely they’re checking for the numbing effect that cocaine will produce when it comes in contact with a mucous membrane. They’re actually “doing” a little cocaine to check and see if it’s real.
A friend of mine who’s a police officer told me once that tasting cocaine is complete BS. He said there’s no way they’d do that, and it’s purely an invention of bad TV cop shows. They’ve got labs for that kind of thing.
…that my post was based not on speaking to police officers but was conjecture based on several facts, including:
Conjecture: Some cops use this as a “shortcut” to make sure they’re dealing with an active substance and not an inert lookalike like baking powder or somesuch. They will of course do real tests down at the lab. It makes for good TV, so maybe it’s overused in drama as opposed to real life.
I’m not a cop, but I’m pretty sure that cops don’t put evidence of any kind in their mouth.
Wouldn’t suprise me if it was purely a cop show invention. But I usually see it in movies or TV shows when a dealer is checking it to make sure he’s getting the real thing.
I do remember hearing something about cocaine tasting very bitter since it is an alkaloid. Thus by tasting it, you can be sure it’s not flour or baking soda.
Perhaps some cops have done this tasting in the field bit, but most know it’s a pretty stupid thing to do. I chased drug smugglers in the Caribbean for a number of years, so I know what we used, and what most other LE agencies use. It’s called a NIK kit, or Narcotics Identification Kit. It’s a portfolio sized kit containing small glass ampules that contain chemicals for detecting just about any drug out there. Basically, if you suspect cocaine, you put a small sample in the packet for coke tests, break the ampule(s), mix, and a specific color change gives you the
“straight dope” on whether it’s straight dope. It takes a few seconds, and very reliable. If you run into an unknown substance, there’s a field guide telling you what packets to start off with, to narrow down the type of drug. The sample size required for a test, is about the size of this capital “O” I’m gonna guess most cops who deal with narcotics (which is all of them these days), carry a kit like this in thier trunk.
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So, this friend of mine, he told me
when you put cocaine into your mouth and swirl it around like snuff, it will numb your gums. If its anything else it will be obvious right away.
I agree the police probably do not use such a system simply due to the wide variety of situations and possible substances. For the same reasons it is not really a very good testing method for buyers of the illegal substance.
But this, at least, is where the concept comes from.
Yes. That was easy, huh?
My brother is a police officer and he took a class on how to field test narcotics. Basically what happens is that if a police officer finds a little baggy with some white stuff in it he does not know what it is, is it flour, sugar, powdered sugar, etc… So the police officer might taste it to find out what it is. Yes, there are testing kits for that, but they are too expensive to put one in every patrol car, they run into $500-$700 dollar range. So a police officer would taste the substance and if it gives off the qualities of a narcotic then they will arrest the guy and take the substance back to a lab for “official” testing. Tasting is not admissible in court, but it is a way for the police officer to make sure that he is not arresting the guy for possesion of flour.
On an interesting side note, my brother had to wrestle someone last night. He pulled the guy over, talked to him for a minute, then asked the guy to get out of the car. When the guy got out of the car he pulled something out of his pocket and tried to swallow it. My brother jumped on him, and had the guy around the neck, effectively choking him so he could not swallow. Eventually the guy spit the thing out and it was a condom filled with heroine. Quite a bot of it too. Enough for a night in the pokey, and then being shipped off to Santa Rita (local prison) the next day.
-N
Like some other people have posted, yes once aquianted with cocaine you can’t miss its taste, not to mention it’ll numb your gums. As to field tasting cocaine, I wonder what happens if your brother fails his drug test, they do drug test cops out there?
As to a condom full of herion, regardless of how badly its cut, if it breaks it will kill you in no-time. Dying of an overdose isn’t something I’m looking forward to anytime soon, prison can’t be that bad.
Smart cops don’t put anything that they find in a bag off of a disreputable character in their mouths. Just think of what could be in the bag. Cyanide? Mycotoxin? Anthrax/Ebola blend? The Colonel’s Original 11 Herbs and Spices? Who the fuck knows? They use the kit to test.
NEVERTHELESS, the two cops I spoke to recently about this said they have seen less intelligent fellow cops try the trick of putting it in their mouths. One was actually suspended without pay for a week for doing it. As one put it to me (near an exact quote):
“They don’t teach that shit in academy. It’s the result of too much Miami Vice.”
Anthracite:
Obviously it depends on the academy they went to. This was taught in my brother’s academy, and also another PO who is a friend of mine went to a class on this after the academy. And also I just wanted to point out that I said might in my post above. It may not be intellegent, but it is taught. And I guess I am being un-clear on how it is taught. They do not tell you to taste everything you come across. But they do tell you what it is like. So it is an option is guess, I was not in the class so I do not know how it was presented. But when I showed this to my brother he said that it was taught to him.
And I never said that my brother did this. And exact quote from him:
“Tell those guys I have never tried tasting weird shit I pull off people and I will never. I just hook 'em and book 'em. It’s the labbies (refering to lab techs) who figure out if I am right.”
-N
Strider: What your brother said speaks well for him - he is evidently one of the pretty smart ones.
If it is taught, it should not be. Cops have enough on-the-job hazards as it is. I certainly would not want any of them to endanger themselves even more by putting strange/diseased/toxic/psychotropic things in their mouths. In fact, I would hope that it would be a uniform policy to never do so, for their own protection.
A friend of mine was involved in a coke bust. The cops busted his kid.
The cops sealed the stuff up and sent it to a lab.
The Father was beside himself with grief. His son told him is was Epsom salts. So it had to be Epsom salts.
In as gentle a way possible I tried to prepare him (the Dad) for what I expected would happen next:
“Herb, you’ve used Epsom salts before, right? You pour the whole container into the hot bath, right? Did you ever need to break it down and put it in little packets?”
When he thought about that he was a little better prepared for the lab report that came back.
Num-nums!
Numb-numbs?
Numb gums.
My dad was in the UK Customs drug squad and he almost had a fit every time he saw this on TV. It would be a moronic thing to do for several reasons:
Drugs are often ‘cut’ with all sorts of dangerous substances - suppliers are rarely concerned over their customers wellbeing. It has also been known for traffickers to be duped into transporting fake drugs. All sorts of nasty substances come as white powder and I don’t suppose the suppliers are too choosy.
‘Wholesale’ qunatities of drugs are often very pure. Putting even a small amount on your gums may make you incapable of performing your duty ;). Some drugs, such as LSD, are extremely toxic in all but the most dilute states.
This is supposed to be evidence!