Update
Lab Finds No Heroin In Students' Pot, Contradicting Field Tests
Mountain Vista High School Students Still Face Drug Charges
The Denver Channel
4 January 2006
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- Investigators said Wednesday that a laboratory found no heroin in marijuana confiscated from high school students, contradicting field tests done immediately after the arrests last month.
Four students were arrested in two incidents near Mountain Vista High School. Douglas County deputies said at the time their field tests showed marijuana taken from the students was laced with the harder drug.
Lab tests done by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation at the request of the sheriff's department found no heroin, sheriff's Lt. Alan Stanton said.
Three of the students were arrested on suspicion of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and one on suspicion of possession of drug paraphernalia.
"False positives do occur (in field tests) but it's not an everyday occurrence," Stanton said.
He said it wasn't clear why the field tests were wrong, but investigators believe the marijuana in both arrests came from the same dealer. Stanton said the identity of the dealer is still under investigation.
Stanton said the new test results did not affect the charges against the students.
The students were caught after a suspicious parent called authorities after seeing the students gathered near a culvert by the school. The deputies confronted the 11 students in front of the school and found that three of the students were in possession of marijuana.
Those three students -- two boys and one girl, were aged 14 to 15.
The Douglas County School District, which has zero tolerance for drugs on school grounds said that beginning in January, the Security Office will be implementing a district-wide program of canine drug inspections at all district high schools. These inspections will include both areas inside the school, as well as parking lots.
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