1970s POLICE TRAINING FILM IDENTIFICATION OF NARCOTICS & ILLEGAL DRUGS

[Music] haha [Applause] in the day-to-day conduct of your police duties no matter how or for what reason you're called to investigate a situation in a residence use your eyes to detect evidence of marijuana hashish or narcotic violations [Music] [Applause] [Music] in one sense you might say a room is like a field investigation report or a booking sheet but unfortunately the information isn't typed clearly on the form waiting to be read the evidence you're looking for is here all right but it has to be located before you can read it and it has to be read with specially trained eyes for example inexperienced eyes would probably overlook the valid evidence of marijuana and hashish use that are apparent on this coffee table but in the law of evidence you can't guess you have to be sure ashtrays being open to view and easy of access are logical places to use your eyes for evidence of marijuana violations and the logical evidence to look for is a partly consumed marijuana cigarette marijuana cigarettes are called joints one that has been partly smoked is called a roach there are some noticeable differences between a marijuana or grass joint and the butt of an ordinary cigarette note the burned end of the ordinary cigarette cigarette tobacco contains a burning agent that keeps the tobacco ignited and burning smoothly result fine gray ash and an evenly burned end marijuana has no such burning agent mixed with it therefore it's hard to keep lit it burns unevenly and generally ends up as a scorched irregularly burned butt note this burned hot spot in the paper unrefined marijuana called unmanicured often contains seeds marijuana seeds burn very hot often exploding like tiny bombs through the paper these bomb craters are clearly visible even at a distance to those who use their eyes machine made cigarettes are generally round or in any case they're uniform in shape cigarette paper is very thin and all commercial cigarettes are wrapped in single paper commercial cigarette tobacco filaments are uniform in size and finally shredded soft and pliable in texture marijuana joints being hand made are seldom perfectly round or uniform in size with respect to each other inside the grass even if manicured which this is not is not finally shredded but contains small irregular lengths of stocks and stems and as we said seeds use your eyes to look for partially consumed marijuana roaches they are prima facie evidence that the premises are being used for an illegal purpose and this brings up an important legal point unless an officer has in hand or observes such positive evidence he cannot legally look any further not even to find out what else this ashtray may contain but if he uses his eyes and sees such evidence like this roach for example he can legally continue his investigation which is what we now propose to do it would be very helpful to an investigating officer if all the distracting evidence of ordinary living could be removed leaving only the evidence he is looking for concentrated conveniently in one place don't get the idea an investigation ever is this easy we're just using a little camera magic here to make it easier to find the evidence we're looking for this hair clip may or may not be prima facie evidence of marijuana use you have to use your eyes and your understanding of legal evidence to find out this is an item you might find anywhere in a residence on the floor on a coffee table under a sofa seat anywhere and this one is not evidence of marijuana use but this one is what's the difference between them well use your eyes and you'll see take a careful look at the end see that burn tip that's what you're looking for metal clips are commonly used to hold marijuana cigarettes for smoking the shorter the roach becomes the harder it is to keep lit frequent lighting and the heat of the burning marijuana which is five or six times as hot as tobacco leaves heat marking or burns on the metal of the roach clip the unmarked clip is just a woman's hair clip but under the law of evidence the burn mark on the other clip changes it into an item of marijuana paraphernalia which gives an investigating officer the legal right to look for additional evidence this alligator clip for example is a perfectly legal item of hardware this one scorched at the tip is an item of marijuana paraphernalia this bobby pin is legal in any home this one with a roach fragment stuck to it is a prima facie item of marijuana paraphernalia such solid legal evidence justifies further search or the issuance of a search warrant or would sustain a marijuana use case in court don't overlook the floor or the rugs around sofas and chairs in your search for evidence marijuana seeds have a tendency to explode or pop out of the joint and fall to the floor this seed obviously is further undisputable proof that marijuana has been used recently in this room this obviously is a cigarette box and it might as well be padlocked as far as an investigating officer's right to lift the lid is concerned unless that is evidence has already been found that marijuana has been or is being used in the room since this investigation has already revealed a half smoke joint plus assorted burned clips and a bobby pin with a roach still in it the officer has a legal right to open the box and see what it contains untrained eyes would see nothing but ordinary perfectly legal cigarettes but not so fast let's use our eyes here's some very important evidence to reinforce the previous evidence of the half-smoked marijuana joint zigzag brand cigarette papers a police lab test will confirm that this paper is identical to the paper the joints and roaches were rolled in it is perfectly legal to have any kind of tobacco cigarettes in the home but not a marijuana cigarette nor a supply of marijuana in a plastic bag commonly called a lid this of course is marijuana itself the best evidence of all it has distinctive characteristics learn them use your eyes it also has a distinctive aroma so use your nose as well as your eyes marijuana has a sweet musty odor that is easy to identify knowing this pot smokers often try to hide the tell-tale fragrance of grass smoke by burning incense in the room therefore the presence of incense or incense burners in a room should be noted this is what manicured marijuana looks like that is the stalks stems and seeds have been removed bulk users or pushers of unmanicured marijuana buy it in compressed blocks weighing about a kilo or kilogram that's about two and two tenths pounds unmanicured marijuana is almost too coarse and rough to be rolled into cigarettes consequently it is either smoked in pipes or manicured to remove the stems stalks in the seeds the custom is to refine the kilo of natural grass by rough stirring or pounding to separate the stems and seeds from the leaves the refined or manicured grass is then removed for packaging this leaves only the coarse stems stalks and seeds which have very little if any narcotic value they are generally thrown away the refined or manicured grass is then packaged into lids each of which contains enough marijuana to make 30 or 40 joints or marijuana cigarettes baggies from the supermarket are almost exclusively used today to package lids of pot when marijuana is smoked in a pipe this is not the kind of pipe that is generally used so an ordinary pipe collection does not necessarily indicate that marijuana is being smoked on the premises but this kind of pipe justifies immediate suspicion and close inspection the area for close inspection is the bowl two things should be looked for one is evidence of repeated heating on the outside but more important is marijuana residue on the inside of the bowl a police chemical laboratory report will positively establish that even this minute smudge is marijuana residue this kind of pipe called a water pipe is also used by marijuana smokers they come in many sizes and shapes including the large one in the center of the table which enables four people to smoke marijuana at one time the hot smoke is cooled by contact with the surface of the water before it is inhaled by the smoker as a matter of fact once marijuana use has been established every kind of humidor or container that looks suspicious should be closely inspected for marijuana residue this is a one hundred dollar block of hashish a stumbling block that may trip unsuspecting marijuana smokers and send them tumbling into the horrors of hard narcotic addiction imported from narcotics producing nations abroad this concentrated mind warping substance is by volume eight to ten times as potent as marijuana grass hashish does not burn like tobacco smolders slowly like fourth of july punk when lighted consequently a very small amount will get a smoker very high and keep him that way for a long time what's a small square of tin foil doing here strange as it may seem such squares of foil are strong evidence that hashish is being smoked on the premises only educated eyes would recognize this bored wooden block as prima facie evidence of hashish smoking here's how it works the tin foil is pressed into the small board hole in the homemade pipe to protect the wood from the heat then the foil is punctured to let smoke pass through a small load of hashish is pressed into the tin foil and lit and another potential narcotics victim floats out of the world of reality toward a midnight of eventual regret and despair so no matter how or for what reason in the day-to-day conduct of your police duties you are called to investigate a residential situation use your eyes [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you