CopyCited 13 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida
...nstitutional dimensions are claimed to exist. Roban v. State,
384 So.2d 683, 685 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980) (emphasis added) (quoting Jones v. State,
360 So.2d 1293, 1296 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978)). [*] Chapter 82-88, Laws of Florida, provides in full: Section 1. Section
893.105, Florida Statutes, is created to read:
893.105 Testing and destruction of seized substances....
CopyCited 2 times | Published | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal | 2010 Fla. App. LEXIS 8184, 2010 WL 2292116
...by the seizing agency after the seizure. Any such sample and the analysis thereof shall be admissible into evidence in any civil or criminal action for the purpose of proving *929 the nature, composition, and weight of the substance seized." [e.s.] § 893.105(1), Fla. Stat. (2009). It is obvious that § 893.105 does not necessarily require testing the entire amount seized; instead police may "sample" test such substances....
...If representative portions of separate packages are properly drawn and tested, the State can make a prima facie case that the separate amounts from which the representative portions were drawn together constitute the total quantity of the chemical substance named or described in the statute. Notably, § 893.105(1) provides no authority for untested substances seized with a tested substance to be admitted into evidence....
...It is thus inescapable that statutes controlling substances named or described only by their chemical names or designations require proof of the chemical composition. And proof of the precise chemical elements, compound or mixture, requires the evidence derived from the scientific method of testing laid down in § 893.105(1). Again, police seized 7 separate bags of some substance. Using § 893.105(1) they sample tested the contents of only one bag weighing not more than 3 grams....
...substance in the only one tested. He based his opinion on his experience in many arrests involving controlled substances. Anyone can say of substances "it all looked alike to me," but "all that glitters is not gold." [3] For good reason, therefore, § 893.105(1) omits any authority to prove chemical composition by testimony that the substance in one container superficially resembles a substance in another. Section 893.105(1) gave police the power to settle the actual chemical composition of all 7 substances by authoritative scientific testing of a representative sample from each of the bags....
CopyPublished | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal
...scientific
tests to determine the nature of the substance and the quantity or
weight. And in certain instances, the experts who conduct these tests
may use random sampling rather than testing every container where the
suspect substance is found. See § 893.105(1) (providing for sample
testing of controlled substances).
For purposes of cannabis, trafficking requires a minimum weight of
twenty-five pounds....
