Oklahoma Criminal Defense Blog

A new study has just concluded that ninety per cent of American currency carries traces of cocaine.  Does that matter?  You bet it does matter to anyone arrested with cash on them, whether they are innocent or guilty of a crime.

What every criminal defense lawyer knows, but few of the average citizens know, is that the trace of drugs on money is a law enforcement device to take cash away from citizens and to convict them for criminal offenses.  This is one of the “tools” that law makers have shoveled to “law enforcement” to help fight crime, i.e., take away those impediments to police efficiency, to wit;  the rights of citizens.

Of course, if you believe only criminals ever need their Constitutional rights, then you will not care.  And if you ever need your to exercise your any of your rights under the Constitution, you will have no cause to complain when you discover these rights are not waiting for you to pick up at your leisure on the foyer table.

U.S. currency has a life of about 20 months.  In that span, bills pick up dirt, food, germs and drugs.  Some currency is used in dope deals or even to use drugs but not all of it.  A bill that goes through a currency counter at the bank can pick up traces if some previous bill carried a trace.  Those bills have fewer traces than others. Some bills were found to have .008 micrograms, which is several thousands of times than a single grain of sand.  Apparently the cocaine binds to the dye in money.

But if that trace can be found by scientific means, law enforcement can find it.  And if you had it in your possession, then law enforcement can demand you explain. Routinely, drug teams, highway patrol troopers, and deputy sheriffs seize cash they find in someone’s possession. It the cash is found near drugs, it is legally presumed to be the fruits of illegal drug activity when you file your petition in district court in an effort to regain your money.  No crime need to have been committed nor alleged.  This is a forfeiture action, and the aw enforcement officers’ team gets to keep the money to buy fancy vehicles, etc.

Yuegang Zuo, professor of chemistry at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth presented his paper at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society showing $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills were more likely to be positive for cocaine than $1 bills.  Drug teams would probably not bother with mere $1 bills anyway.

Professor Zuo also found geographic variations in his findings.  Rural areas had less cocaine trace.  One hundred percent of the money from Miami, Boston, and Detroit.  Also, American money had the highest percentage of traces with 90 per cent of 234 bank notes tested.  Canada had 85 per cent, followed by Brazil with 80 per cent.  The lowest percentages were from China with 20 per cent and Japan with 12 per cent.

The drug taint should not be a health problem, Health agencies have advised people to wash their hands after touching cash.  Disease-causing organisms such as staphylococcus aureus and pneumonia-causing bacteria have detected on paper bills. A 2002 study published in the Southern Medical Journal, 94 per cent of tested bills had potentially disease causing organisms.  But Adam Negrusz, associate professor of forensic sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he is not worried about adverse effects on the general health from these drug traces.

Professor Negrusz published a study in 1998 with similar findings.  His study compared freshly minted currency with currency collected from circulation in a Chicago suburb.  The study found 92.8 per cent of the circulated money had traces of cocaine, but none of the uncirculated money had any trace.    He noted that while such drug traces are not a general health problem, that they could be a serious problem to anyone who handles a lot of cash.

A new study has just concluded that ninety per cent of American currency carries traces of cocaine.  Does that matter?  You bet it does matter to anyone arrested with cash on them, whether they are innocent or guilty of a crime.

What every criminal defense lawyer knows, but few of the average citizens know, is that the trace of drugs on money is a law enforcement device to take cash away from citizens and to convict them for criminal offenses.  This is one of the “tools” that law makers have shoveled to “law enforcement” to help fight crime, i.e., take away those impediments to police efficiency, to wit;  the rights of citizens.

Of course, if you believe only criminals ever need their Constitutional rights, then you will not care.  And if you ever need your to exercise your any of your rights under the Constitution, you will have no cause to complain when you discover these rights are not waiting for you to pick up at your leisure on the foyer table.

U.S. currency has a life of about 20 months.  In that span, bills pick up dirt, food, germs and drugs.  Some currency is used in dope deals or even to use drugs but not all of it.  A bill that goes through a currency counter at the bank can pick up traces if some previous bill carried a trace.  Those bills have fewer traces than others. Some bills were found to have .008 micrograms, which is several thousands of times than a single grain of sand.  Apparently the cocaine binds to the dye in money.

But if that trace can be found by scientific means, law enforcement can find it.  And if you had it in your possession, then law enforcement can demand you explain. Routinely, drug teams, highway patrol troopers, and deputy sheriffs seize cash they find in someone’s possession. It the cash is found near drugs, it is legally presumed to be the fruits of illegal drug activity when you file your petition in district court in an effort to regain your money.  No crime need to have been committed nor alleged.  This is a forfeiture action, and the aw enforcement officers’ team gets to keep the money to buy fancy vehicles, etc.

Yuegang Zuo, professor of chemistry at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth presented his paper at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society showing $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills were more likely to be positive for cocaine than $1 bills.  Drug teams would probably not bother with mere $1 bills anyway.

Professor Zuo also found geographic variations in his findings.  Rural areas had less cocaine trace.  One hundred percent of the money from Miami, Boston, and Detroit.  Also, American money had the highest percentage of traces with 90 per cent of 234 bank notes tested.  Canada had 85 per cent, followed by Brazil with 80 per cent.  The lowest percentages were from China with 20 per cent and Japan with 12 per cent.

The drug taint should not be a health problem, Health agencies have advised people to wash their hands after touching cash.  Disease-causing organisms such as staphylococcus aureus and pneumonia-causing bacteria have detected on paper bills. A 2002 study published in the Southern Medical Journal, 94 per cent of tested bills had potentially disease causing organisms.  But Adam Negrusz, associate professor of forensic sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he is not worried about adverse effects on the general health from these drug traces.

Professor Negrusz published a study in 1998 with similar findings.  His study compared freshly minted currency with currency collected from circulation in a Chicago suburb.  The study found 92.8 per cent of the circulated money had traces of cocaine, but none of the uncirculated money had any trace.    He noted that while such drug traces are not a general health problem, that they could be a serious problem to anyone who handles a lot of cash.