opus123

Chemical analysis can easily tell how long ago a bill was used to snort cocaine or if the bill was in the near proximity of drugs unless the drug room was clean, as I said earlier. Yes, pretty much all bills are contaminated in micrograms, but snorting would increase the microgram levels for sure. The first article talks about Euros and the 2nd talks about US money.

http://www.physorg.com/news87664001.html

http://www.snopes.com/business/money/cocaine.asp

Heroin; Methamphetamine but not codeine can be detected as well.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...dd1724dcf17169

This last article talks about a drug sniffing dog that was so good, it detected drugs directly on $9,000 in a briefcase. The sad thing was that the amounts were not high enough to persuade a judge to think that the drugs had made direct contact with the money, so the money was returned.

http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/p...cre_notes.html

The police constantly test clothing for cocaine and other drugs, why not test money as well ?

I suspect however, that the truck driver was suffering from lack of sleep and maybe was acting odd in some way so as to incur the search, or perhaps they randomly searched his truck, but the fact that he volunteered the money before it was found could be either quick thinking on his part or perhaps he is innocent. The sad part is the long backlog on CSI chemical testing and the trucker might not get his money back for awhile.

Anyway, I don't know anyone in the police field anymore, so perhaps times have changed and I'll conceed the point if it is no longer done.

Jonathan

__________________
"We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with
ourselves. It is a civil war, and in all such
contentions, triumphs are defeats." Mr Colton
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