New and emerging drugs in state crime lab evidence: Quarter 2 & 3 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). We present only notable increases, not overall trends.

Emerging drugs in the second quarter of 2020

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 fentanyl. We start with these, and then turn to other drug classes showing increases in specific counties.

Non-prescription benzodiazepines: The "designer" benzodiazepines often come in pills that imitate Xanax (alprazolam) pills. Some have the same color and appearance as Xanax and others are yellow or green bar-type pills, all containing such unapproved substances as flualprazolam, clonazolam, and etizolam, according to case reports from the King County Medical Examiner's Office. There was, again, a statewide jump (to 41) in cases testing positive for one or more benzodiazepine that is not legally available in the US. Eleven counties, presented below, had increases over their prior levels, although that includes several counties with just one such case.

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 181 cases of fentanyl in the quarter, exceeding the 170 cases of all of 2018, with 14 counties experiencing jumps. We refer here to cases of fentanyl itself, which is legally available but can be made illicitly, and not any of the many analogues. (Clark County also saw a significant jump in fentanyl analogue cases, to 4.)

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 some of the counties highlighted below, the fentanyl reported above made up most of the prescription opioid cases. The most prominent example of this is Yakima County, which saw 16 prescription-type opioid cases in the quarter, all of which had submissions positive for fentanyl, after averaging 29 such cases in the prior three calendar years. So far in 2020, Yakima County has had 52 prescription-type opioid cases, all but two of which involved fentanyl. In contrast, Pacific County's four cases all involved buprenorphine, commonly used to treat opioid use disorder.

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.

Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA (known as "Ecstasy") and methylenedioxyamphetamine or MDA (sometimes known as "Sally") are the most common types of phenethylamines, which are consumed recreationally for their mood- and energy-enhancing properties. All of the cases shown below except for Franklin County's single case of MDA were MDMA.

Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol

Cocaine: Six counties saw small but relatively significant jumps in cases testing positive for cocaine.

Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol

Methamphetamine: Two counties had notable increases in cases testing positive for methamphetamine. Pacific County saw 32 cases in the second quarter of 2020 after averaging 58 cases per year over the prior 3 years. The 123 cases in Snohomish County is similarly over half the prior three calendar year average of 220. It should be noted that Snohomish County had over 1000 cases positive for meth in 2005.
The non-prescription benzodiazepines described above are in the umbrella classification of depressants, which also includes drugs such as zolpidem (Ambien) and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). Four of the counties highlighted above also saw significant jumps in the depressant category.

Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol

Emerging drugs in the third quarter of 2020

Once again, Washington state saw a notable increase in crime lab cases testing positive for non-prescription benzodiazepines.

The state saw 29 cases of non-prescription benzodiazepines. Ten counties saw increases, including four counties with a single case each.

Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol

Ten counties saw significant increases in fentanyl cases. In four of the counties highlighted, these cases comprised all (Adams, Jefferson) or all but 2 (Walla Walla, Yakima) of the observed significant jumps in prescription-type opioids.

Preliminary data. Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol

In addition to the 10 cases of fentanyl itself in Clark County highlighted above, there were also 3 cases positive for fentanyl analogues. Clark County had 9 cases of fentanyl analogues total prior to 2020, and has had 8 so far this year. Similarly, Cowlitz County had 2 such cases prior to 2020 and 2 so far this year.
Two counties in eastern Washington, Ferry and Lincoln, saw small jumps, to two, in cases testing positive for heroin in the third quarter.
Cowlitz (3 cases), Lewis (2), and Pierce (1) counties each saw small jumps in tryptamines. Half of these 6 cases total involved LSD.
We close the third quarter with cases of phenethylamines (although we will update the third quarter when the next round of data arrive). Grant County usually sees jumps in phenethylamines and other so-called "party drugs" during the summer thanks to the Gorge Amphitheater, but with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions cancelling the outdoor concert season, the county saw no jumps in any drug category in the third quarter this year. There were small jumps in phenethylamine cases in Cowlitz (2 cases), Franklin (1), and Lincoln (1) counties, all involving MDMA or MDA.

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. Note that decreases in the most recent quarter may be due to the incompleteness of the testing results, and may become quarter-over-quarter increases after updating. All three may be sold as themselves, or as imitations of other substances. While Washington sees plenty of "street Xanax", we rarely see fentanyls mixed with black tar heroin or benzodiazepines.

Data source: Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau, Washington State Patrol

Prior editions of this page:

Data notes

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, non-prescription benzodiazepines, 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: