In the movie “Kid Cannabis”, the kids rig the truck they will use to haul the marijuana with gas cans to burn the stash if they are pulled over.
Would this work as a method of evading punishment? An incendiary device like this is extremely dangerous and one step below a bomb. However, if drug dealers were to use thermite or something to rapidly convert their entire stash into ash, would this let them skate the law?
They’d obviously have committed the crime of illegal use of a pyrotechnic device, and presumably the ashes could be chemically tested and proven to be made from illegal drugs. However, could the authorities actually charge the criminals with possession/transport of <some huge quantity> of illegal drugs, or would they have to settle for merely “arson” or “attempted murder”, depending on how violent the conflagration was? (which, ironically, would not be subject to mandatory minimum laws and could easily end up being a shorter sentence)