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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

State Patrol toxicology test backlog means big delays for police, families

By Donald W. Meyers Yakima Herald-Republic

At the Washington State Patrol’s toxicology lab in Seattle, there’s a backlog of some 3,500 tests waiting to be done.

That means it can potentially take months for investigators to learn whether charges are warranted in car accidents or in cases when suspected drugs are seized. Similar delays confront families who can’t file insurance claims until a death certificate can be finalized in overdose cases.

Last year, Yakima County sought testing in about 180 of the 654 deaths that the county Coroner’s Office handled.

The usual wait for test results had been four to six weeks, but lately it’s stretching into months, said Yakima County Coroner Jack Hawkins.

State Patrol officials blame the delay, in part, on the state’s 2012 legalization of recreational marijuana.

Unlike alcohol, which is usually measured by a breath test administered at a jail, marijuana can be detected only in a blood test.

In 2017, the lab did 9,740 DUI blood tests, about 2,700 more than 2015.

On top of that, the lab is budgeted for 13 scientists, the same number it had in 2012, but only nine are working due to resignations or family leave, said State Patrol spokesman Kyle Moore.

As a result, the median time for tests to be completed has gone from 18 days in 2015 to 80 days this year, with a backlog of 3,500 cases since April 2017.

The delay can stretch even longer as high-priority cases move to the head of the line and more routine tests sit on the shelf.

Moore said help may be on the way, in the form of the Legislature’s decision earlier this year to pay for six additional scientists to run tests this year. Moore said the lab is in the process of hiring.

Hawkins said the backlog affects families who need to have a death certificate to obtain insurance benefits.

“On the death certificate, we can say pending, so they can have their (funeral) services,” Hawkins said. “But for insurance, they can’t complete it until we have our cause of death.”

But the lab considers death tests a lower priority, compared with criminal investigations, Moore said. Criminal investigations, he said, are given the highest priority, and the lab works with agencies to determine which tests need to be expedited to protect a defendant’s right to a speedy trial.

In addition to the six scientists authorized by the Legislature, Moore said the lab has also brought in some temporary grant-funded staff to help with the backlog.

Hawkins has taken some steps locally to move things quicker, such as having a private lab run tests on urine samples when he suspects a drug overdose. But he still must wait for the state lab’s blood tests to come back to provide a more accurate picture of how much drugs were in someone’s system.