New and emerging drugs in state crime lab evidence: Quarter 4 2019 and Quarter 1 2020
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 2 most recent quarters. (Data are preliminary and will change. For more on the data, see the details at the end of the page).
Emerging drugs in the fourth quarter of 2019
Statewide, there were significant jumps (more than double the number of cases testing positive versus in the average quarter in the prior 3 years) in non-prescription "designer" benzodiazepines and in both fentanyl itself and fentanyl analogues. We start with these, and then turn to other drug classes showing increases in specific counties.
Non-prescription benzodiazepines: There was, again, a statewide jump (to 18) in cases testing positive for one or more benzodiazepine that is not legally available in the US. King County had a third of these cases, which contributed to a significant jump in all benzodiazepine cases.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid many times more powerful than heroin or morphine. Washington state had 123 cases of fentanyl in the quarter, with 15 counties experiencing jumps.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Fentanyl analogues include both derivatives of and precursors to fentanyl. Some are even more powerful opioids than fentanyl itself, and some are legal pharmaceuticals. The state saw 19 cases of analogues in the quarter, after 8 such cases total from 2002 through 2016.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
The increase in seizures of fentanyl contributed to jumps in prescription-type opioid cases. Note, again, that these are cases positive for an opioid that is itself legally available, regardless of the source of the quantity seized. For many of the counties highlighted below, the fentanyl reported above made up half or more of the prescription opioid cases.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Jumps in oxycodone cases also contributed to some of the prescription-type opioid increases.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Similarly, cases positive for buprenorphine, commonly used to treat opioid use disorder, increased in several counties.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
The number of cases testing positive for heroin jumped in 5 counties, led by Walla Walla and Douglas Counties.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Tryptamines are a class of drug that includes many new and emerging pyschoactives but also includes psilocybin/psilocin (psychedelic mushrooms) and LSD. All of the jumps in the fourth quarter of 2019 also represented jumps in the counts of one or the other of these older tryptamines. For example, Walla Walla County saw 1 case of psilocybin in the fourth quarter, and 3 for 2019, after 4 total in 2016-2018, and also a jump to 4 cases of LSD.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Lewis (3 cases), Pacific (2), and Walla Walla (3) Counties each small jumps in cases of cocaine in the fourth quarter, above the average quarter in recent years but not perhaps higher than the average quarter in the 2000s.
Emerging drugs in the first quarter of 2020
Once again, Washington state saw a notable increase in crime lab cases testing positive for fentanyl.
Statewide, there were 108 cases of fentanyl in the quarter, continuing a string of quarterly jumps. There have been 386 fentanyl cases in Washington in 2019 (results through March 2020), more than double 2018's 170 cases. Nine counties saw significant increases in fentanyl cases, although that includes 2 counties with a single case in the quarter. The 46 cases in Benton County, plus 2 cases of hydrocodone, made up most of a significant jump in prescription-type opioid cases.
Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
Two counties saw an increase in cases testing positive for a non-prescription benzodiazepine: Clark County with 2, and King County with 4. Meanwhile, Skagit County (3 cases) and Pend Oreille County (1 case) saw small but notable increases over prior quarters in legally available benzodiazepines. Those cases comprised the notable jumps in the umbrella category of depressants for those counties, while Douglas County (1 case) and Thurston County (4 cases) also had increases in cases testing positive for depressants.
Emerging trends?
Three drug classes stand out over the last several quarters for how often they have had increases: fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and non-prescription benzodizazepines. Although, as noted, quarter is a rough representation of time, we present time trends by quarter to illustrate the growing threat of these substances in Washington state. Click on the Fentanyl series name in the legend to turn that series off and better see the other two.
Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol
In order to smooth the jumps, we compare the current quarter to the average quarter over the prior 3 years (a rolling 12-quarter comparison period). 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 (e.g., 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:
(3 cases), Pacific
(2), and Walla Walla
(3) Counties each small jumps in cases of cocaine in the fourth quarter, above the average quarter in recent years but not perhaps higher than the average quarter in the 2000s. 
