GARDAI may be asked to stop sending small amounts of suspected drugs for analysis because the State Forensic Science Laboratory is too busy to cope with minor offences.
New guidelines could be introduced to encourage gardai not to concern the laboratory with small quantities of suspected drugs if no charge or only a minor charge would result.
Discussions have been taking place between laboratory staff, the office of the Garda Commissioner and legal advisers from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, aimed at determining if such a policy would be feasible.
With two political parties committed to "zero tolerance" policing and the remainder promising some form of crackdown on crime, the suggestion of a new approach to minor drugs offences is not expected to be put formally before policymakers until well after the general election.
Under current legislation all quantities of suspected drugs can be sent for analysis, and prosecution should result where a suspect can be linked to an illegal substance. But the volume of work at the laboratory is forcing staff there to give priority to larger drug finds, and they hope the Garda can be discouraged from pursuing results for relatively minor quantities.
The main problem for the laboratory is the amount of work required to examine traces of possible drugs, typically found in a pocket or an ashtray. The traces, which account for about 7 per cent of the drug cases handled by the laboratory, often prove to be of illegal drugs, and under the Misuse of Drugs legislation the investigating gardai are entitled to insist on receiving a report on the substances they have submitted.
According to sources, such minor cases are placing a severe strain on resources, which have not kept pace with the growth in the illegal drugs trade, and there is a case for formally prioritising the laboratory's work. Already gardai are occasionally informally asked by laboratory staff if they consider the case they are investigating is worth the time an analysis would take.
The problem raises the prospect of the most minor offences being regarded as secondary, and likely to lead only to a warning from a garda. While there is no legal provision for minor drugs offences to be a matter for a formal caution rather than a prosecution, gardai traditionally have been allowed to exercise discretion.
The laboratory is also keen to be allowed to forgo analysis of drug finds where there is no suspect involved. This would typically involve packets of substances found hidden in open spaces or abandoned by dealers fleeing from the Garda. All such finds would be stored but not analysed unless a prosecution seemed likely.
As illegal drug use has grown, the amount of work required of the State Forensic Science Laboratory has increased significantly. In 1992 there were 4,262 drug cases handled by the laboratory, but last year the total had risen toe 6,079, an increase in the workload of more than 40 per cent in four years.
Each "case number" can represent many days work. A case number may be assigned to a single bag of illegal drugs, but could also apply to all seizures from a large drug smuggling operation, which could require analysis of illicit substances, clothes, cash, weighing scales and other items. Where a large quantity of drugs is found, several tests have to be carried out to determine if the find is of a consistent quality.
The laboratory has managed to reduce a backlog of work - the number of cases awaiting analysis has dropped from 2,500 to 1,700 over the last six months. But the quantities of substances being sent to the laboratory continues to grow, particularly since the beginning of the Garda's anti drug initiative in Dublin, Operation Dochas.
The laboratory, which handles all types of forensic work for the Garda, has 43 scientific staff and a small number of clerical staff. There are 11 staff scientists devoted to drugs analysis, along with five technicians.
While this represents a small increase in staff in recent years, there has also been a growth in forensic work not related to drugs, such as analysis of clothing fibres and blood collected during murder investigations.