(Columbus, OH) Ohio's attorney general wants more money to keep up with the growing opiate epidemic.
But the aim by Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine is to use more crime labs across the state to help handle the increasing drug-testing workload. The attorney general is asking the state controlling board for an extra 440-thousand dollars so crime labs near Cincinnati and Cleveland can assist the Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab in the state capitol.
BCI anticipates doing more than 27-thousand drug tests this year-- nearly twice the amount performed in 2010.
Those drug tests have become more complex and time-consuming, because lab techs are dealing with dangerous concoctions that include some powerful painkillers, such as fentanyll and the elephant tranquilizer carfentanil.