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Sunday, June 17, 2012
By Michael Nichols
Categories: Drunk-Driving
East Lansing attorney Mike Nichols has uncovered a secret that the Michigan State Police Forensic Services division does not want the public to know: the lab uses a test that is best suited for analyzing the metabolite of marijuana and not marijuana itself. "The lab uses a method that is not 'optimized' for THC," says Michigan DUID-OUID-OUIL attorney Mike Nichols of East Lansing.
The lab protocol is attached (see below).
The lab's supervisor recently testified that that the lab uses the metabolite, carboxy THC-11 as the internal standard during the gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis. Nichols, who has practiced his entire 13 year career in the Lansing area in defense of those throughout Michigan accused of a crime, was shocked to hear the testimony. "Geoff French testified that his predecessor, Dr. Michelle Glinn, once remarked that it did not 'work very well' to use "heavy" THC as the internal standard. The internal standard is the measuring stick used to identify and analyze the concentration of THC in a blood sample," said Nichols. Nichols added: "I asked Mr. French to provide any data to verify the basis on which Dr. Glinn made this statement - they have yet to do that." "Heavy" THC is a short-hand way to describe deuterated THC. A deuterated compound means an extra molecule of hydrogen was added to the compound. It does not exist in nature. It has the same chemical structure as the 'natural' compound so if you compare a deuterated specimen to an unknown - you know what you are looking at in the analysis.
Nichols is the lead attorney on a challenge to the lab's procedures for analyzing THC in human blood. He says "it's critical to make sure that the lab has verified its cut-off levels and validated its method with data, more so than ever now that the court of appeals recently upheld 'any amount' as the standard - even in a medical marijuana patient who is driving." There are no attorneys in Michigan who understand the lab's THC testing process better than Mike Nichols.
For the Michigan OUID-OUIL-DUI attorney who is on the cutting edge of forensic analysis and setting the pace all over Michigan, call Mike Nichols at 517.432.9000 or
mnichols@nicholslaw.net