Forensic Assay of GHB in Texas Beef:

GHB in Beef

Back in 1999, I was hired by a Texas lawyer to consult on a legal case involving charges of possession of GHB. In Texas, GHB had been given Schedule-I status by the legislature, and a man had been arrested for possession. After extensive explanations, I suggested that we analyze beef for GHB, and then submit that finding to the court as evidence of the law's unconstitutionality (vagueness and selective enforcement). I figured that beef was the best political target due to the recent court case with Oprah. We originally decided to test aged, store-bought beef and freshly slaughtered beef, but the fresh beef proved difficult to obtain, so we tested fresh pork. The samples were obtained locally, frozen, packed in dry ice, and shipped overnight.

I accepted the samples in California, and took them to the Chemical Toxicology Institute (CTI), located in Foster City, California. CTI does forensic GHB tests for San Francisco and Los Angeles police departments, as well as contract work for non-law-enforcement organizations. At CTI, the samples were processed under my continuous supervision, in accordance with forensic standards (when the lab closed for the night, the samples were put into evidence bags which were sealed with non-tamper tape overwritten with my signature). The results showed that store-bought beef and fresh pork both contained GHB.

These results were presented to the prosecuting attorney. The next day, the case was dropped. The reason given: technical deficiencies in the search warrant. ——SWF