In this episode I speak with Maya Dukmasova a senior reporter at InjusticeWatch.org who has just penned a great investigative piece about a rogue lab and cannabis DUI testing methadology and results in Illinois.Maya writesIt would take more than six years for Thompson to be exonerated, along with more than a dozen other DuPage County defendants who had been convicted of low-level DUI-cannabis charges with the help of Bash’s lab work and testimony. By then, Bash would resign and UIC would shut down her lab right as an accrediting agency’s audit uncovered a range of unacceptable problems in its operations. Prosecutors’ offices in some of the 17 counties for which the lab provided testing would also issue disclosures to defendants about Bash’s “inaccurate and unqualified testimony.”In a months-long investigation — including more than 45 Freedom of Information Act requests, more than 100 interviews, and a review of some 8,000 pages of public records — Injustice Watch found more than 2,200 cases in which body fluids were tested for THC by the UIC lab between 2016 and 2024. In addition to improperly testing urine for DUI-cannabis investigations, these sources indicate the lab was for years unable to differentiate between legal and illegal types of THC in people’s body fluids. Worse, internal records examined by Injustice Watch suggest the lab was aware of some of the problems in its testing since at least 2021 but continued to perform tests and report results to law enforcement, mostly in DUI cases. Bash, meanwhile, repeatedly testified about the lab’s findings in inaccurate and misleading ways.“I take great pride in my work and have always conducted myself ethically,” Bash said in written responses to Injustice Watch questions. “It is deeply upsetting to be falsely accused.”Injustice Watch also found university officials charged with overseeing the lab were focused on the lab’s financial performance, and not on the quality of its scientific work. According to internal emails, officials’ eventual decision to shut down human testing at the lab came as a result of its failure to generate revenue.UIC officials declined interview requests from Injustice Watch but recently issued an internal investigation report exonerating themselves from oversight failures. The report concluded the lab’s methods were “at all times appropriate and met accepted scientific standards” and none of its analysts “knowingly provided false testimony in criminal proceedings.” We discuss the lab and its processes , its relationship with the university, its results and as Maya succinctly says that word “opaque” pops up again and againRead Morehttps://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-267-opaque-how-a-rogue-laboratory-at-university-of-illinois-chicago-got-people-convicted-for-driving-high/
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