Case Study 9: Cannabis Valuation

Case Study 9: Cannabis valuation

 Situation…

Police Officers attended a domestic address and from a subsequent search of the property they recovered quantities of material suspected.

The plant material was submitted for laboratory testing and it was concluded it contained cannabis.

Using this data, the police undertook calculations with regard to the potential street valuation of the material on the basis that they would have been bought or sold as “eighth” or one gramme deals.

Action…

Bericon Forensics was asked to inspect the material and prepare a report that reviewed its quality and valuation.

Result…

The material was described by the scientist as 1.15kg of “green herbal material” and that laboratory tests showed it to be cannabis.

Bericon visited the laboratory where we were able to inspect the above item and it was shown to consist of stalk and leaf material only and on that basis would not have had any commercial value.

The item did not contain any flowering tops material. This observation was not a criticism of the laboratory work, merely a consequence of the abbreviated reporting styles typically now seen in forensic investigations and the fact that the police valuation officer had not inspected the item personally.