An Act To Authorize the Use of Handheld Narcotics Analyzers
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 0788
Committee: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Sponsors: KEIM, STEWART, CARPENTER, DESCHAMBAULT, MOORE, ROSEN
Amends: 17-A MRSA §1112

Legislative Document
No. 788
S.P. 232
In Senate, February 12, 2019
An Act To Authorize the Use of Handheld Narcotics Analyzers
Reference to the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety suggested and ordered 
printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator KEIM of Oxford.
Cosponsored by Representative STEWART of Presque Isle and
Senators: CARPENTER of Aroostook, DESCHAMBAULT of York, MOORE of Washington, 
ROSEN of Hancock.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  17-A MRSA §1112, sub-§4 is enacted to read:
4.  A law enforcement agency that has in its possession a drug or substance for 
analysis as a scheduled drug may, in addition to or instead of analysis of the drug or 
substance in accordance with subsection 1, submit the drug or substance for analysis by 
means of a handheld narcotics analyzer that has been evaluated and certified by the 
Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Environmental Testing 
Laboratory as reliable for field testing of scheduled drugs.  A law enforcement officer 
who analyzes a drug or substance pursuant to this subsection shall perform the analysis 
by means of a handheld narcotics analyzer in accordance with procedures adopted by the 
Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory and upon completion of the analysis shall 
issue a signed certificate stating the results of the analysis.  The certificate, when duly 
signed and sworn to by a person certified as qualified for this purpose by the Department 
of Health and Human Services under certification standards set by that department, is 
admissible in evidence in a court of the State, and gives rise to a permissible inference 
under the Maine Rules of Evidence, Rule 303 that the composition, quality and quantity 
of the drug or substance are as stated in the certificate, unless, with 10 days' written notice 
to the prosecution, the defendant requests that a qualified witness testify as to the 
composition, quality and quantity.
SUMMARY
This bill provides that a law enforcement agency that has in its possession a drug or 
substance for analysis as a scheduled drug may, in addition to or instead of analysis of the 
drug or substance in a laboratory, submit the drug or substance for analysis by means of a 
handheld narcotics analyzer that has been evaluated and certified by the Department of 
Health and Human Services, Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory as reliable for 
field testing of scheduled drugs.  The bill requires that a law enforcement officer who 
analyzes a drug or substance by means of a handheld narcotics analyzer in accordance 
with procedures adopted by the Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory must upon 
completion of the analysis issue a signed certificate stating the results of the analysis.  
The bill provides that such a certificate, when duly signed and sworn to by a person 
certified as qualified for this purpose by the Department of Health and Human Services 
under certification standards set by that department, is admissible in evidence in a court 
of the State, and gives rise to a permissible inference under the Maine Rules of Evidence, 
Rule 303 that the composition, quality and quantity of the drug or substance are as stated 
in the certificate, unless, with 10 days' written notice to the prosecution, the defendant 
requests that a qualified witness testify as to the composition, quality and quantity.