New and emerging drugs in state crime lab evidence: Quarters 3 and 4, 2018
Data source, utility, and limitations
Crime lab data are a partial indicator of the supply of illegal drugs or prescription drugs that are controlled substances and suspected of being purchased or sold illegally. The data presented here are the results of the Washington State Patrol’s Crime Lab chemistry testing of samples submitted by law enforcement. While the data provide important insights into the supply of drugs, in part due to the use of precise chemical testing which indicates exactly which substance is present, they also have numerous important limitations that are described at the bottom of this page.
On this page, quarterly data provided by the Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau are used to identify drugs that appear to be increasing in law enforcement seizures in the most recent quarter. (Data are preliminary and will change. For more on the data, see the details at the end of the page).
Emerging drugs in the third quarter of 2018
Washington saw a significant jump in fentanyl analogue cases in the crime lab data for the third quarter, which we discuss further below. Different counties had small (but more than 100%) jumps in different drugs over the average quarter in 2015-2017:
Opioids:
Fentanyl: Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid many times more powerful than heroin or morphine. Here we highlight cases of fentanyl itself, and not any of the many analogues. Pierce County has now had 7 cases of fentanyl so far in 2018 after 6 total the prior three years (plus 2 cases of fentanyl analogues in 2017). Whatcom County has had 4 cases in 2018 after 4 total from 2002--2017.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Most of the fentanyl analogues are illegal, and any or all cases here may have been produced illegally or diverted from legal supply. Like fentanyl itself, they are many times more powerful than heroin or morphine, and are responsible for a significant share of opioid-caused deaths in the eastern United States. The 5 cases statewide in the third quarter match the 5 cases statewide in all of 2016.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Heroin: Mason, Walla Walla, and Ferry Counties saw significant increases in heroin cases over the average quarter in 2015--2017, although for Ferry County this represents a single case.
Other opioids: Chelan and Island Counties saw significant increases in cases testing positive for oxycodone. Chelan, Grant, and Kittitas Counties had jumps in cases testing positive for buprenorphine, a drug that can be prescribed for pain management but most often is used for treatment of opioid use disorder.
Tryptamines are a class of drug that includes many new and emerging pyschoactives but also includes psilocybin/psilocin (psychedelic mushrooms) and LSD. As in the second quarter (see the prior edition of this page), a handful of counties saw relatively high numbers of cases of tryptamines, although for most this was a single case in the quarter.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Cannabis: As in the first two quarters of 2018, Grays Harbor County again saw a large jump in cannabis cases (18) over prior quarters. The county had 17 cases positive for cannabis in all of 2017, and 12 each in 2015 and 2016, but saw a slew of arrests in November of 2017. (This illustrates the delay between seizure and actual lab submission we discuss below.)
Cocaine: 5 counties saw more than twice as many cocaine cases in the quarter than in the average quarter over the prior three years. Increases in cocaine cases should be interpreted in the context of large decreases since the early 2000s. See our cocaine page for more information.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Emerging drugs in the fourth quarter of 2018
There were no emergent trends statewide in the crime lab data for the fourth quarter. Different counties had small (but more than 100%) jumps in different drugs over the average quarter in 2015-2017:
MDMA: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (known as "Ecstasy") is consumed recreationally for its mood- and energy-enhancing properties. The 4 cases in Kitsap County positive for MDMA match the total over 2015 through 2017.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Fentanyl: Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid many times more powerful than heroin or morphine. Here we highlight cases of fentanyl itself, and not any of the many analogues. Arrests involving fentanyl remain relatively rare, such that a single case in a given quarter in 2018 represents a jump because most prior quarters saw 0 cases. This is likely to change in 2019.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
In order to smooth the jumps, we now compare the current quarter to the average quarter over the prior 3 years. This means that an unusually low number of cases in the prior year no longer creates what looks like a substantial increase, which is particularly an issue with relatively rare drug categories and/or small counties.
As we describe elsewhere, there are many limitations of the data, including: county being an imperfect geographic unit to report the data; changes in law enforcement policy, practice and resources over time; and often substantial lags between when drugs were seized by law enforcement and when they were submitted to the lab and then further lags due to testing and reporting.
Truly new drugs present a challenge for crime lab testing: the need for a standard to which to compare the lab sample for identification. Cannabimimetics and novel psychoactive drugs (for example, variations of MDMA), for example, are constantly changing. Often when a particular formulation gains enough notoriety--usually, being made illegal or causing a widely reported death--to warrant a standards company producing a chemical standard and a crime lab buying it, the formulation is changed. Thus, time trends in identified crime lab cases do not capture the initial rise of such a novel substance, but at best its peak and decline. Here we just focus on significant counts of new or rarely-before-seen substances.
In addition to the above issues with crime lab case counts, there are difficulties with reliably assigning a case to a particular quarter. First, the date entered as the received date for a particular case may be a few days after when the case actually arrived at the lab, which might put it into the next quarter. This date clearly comes after the actual arrest. Furthermore, testing takes time, and so results may not come until a subsequent quarter. Sometimes the initial request is for only some of the evidence from a case to be tested, and so the other items might be tested later at prosecutor request, adding further delay between submission and result.
In sum, "quarter" does not mean when law enforcement seized the drug, and counts will likely change. All data presented here are preliminary.
Please refer to the other crime lab data pages for other insight:
, Walla Walla
, and Ferry
Counties saw significant increases in heroin cases over the average quarter in 2015--2017, although for Ferry County this represents a single case.
and Island
Counties saw significant increases in cases testing positive for oxycodone. Chelan
, and Kittitas
Counties had jumps in cases testing positive for buprenorphine, a drug that can be prescribed for pain management but most often is used for treatment of opioid use disorder. 
again saw a large jump in cannabis cases (18) over prior quarters. The county had 17 cases positive for cannabis in all of 2017, and 12 each in 2015 and 2016, but saw a slew of arrests in November of 2017. (This illustrates the delay between seizure and actual lab submission we discuss below.)