Greenfield Police Department to destroy large amounts of drugs



GREENFIELD (WITI) -- The Greenfield Police Department will do a "slow burn" of confiscated marijuana this week, destroying a large amount of drugs.

An evidence room in the basement of the police station holds boxes and boxes of drugs, kept and stored as evidence after an arrest or bust.

"The last couple of days, the property evidence management people have been working hard to look up cases and go through evidence," said Greenfield Police Captain Jay Johnson. "Depending on whether it's a municipal case or a downtown, misdemeanor felony case, there are statutory requirements for how long we have to keep the items."

Roughly five years worth of drugs, mostly marijuana, fill the room. Johnson says each of the 2,500 items in the boxes will soon be incinerated -- from small envelopes of hash, to pot that was seized, ready to distribute.

The location where the drugs will be disposed can not be disclosed for security reasons. At some point during the next month, at least five other municipalities will join Greenfield in properly disposing of their inventories.

"Obviously we're taking a dent out of this. A substantial dent," said Johnson.

Officers must first weigh and chemically test each piece of evidence before it is incinerated. The weight and composition must match their records from when the drugs were originally taken into possession by police.

If the drugs don't match original records, an investigation would ensue.