The Seattle Times recently ran an article from the Washington Post, discussing an arrest for possession of cocaine based on a "field test" performed by police in Saluda County, South Carolina.  The article describes an arrest of Shai Werts, the quarterback at Georgia Southern University.  Mr. Werts was pulled over for speeding on July 31, 2019 and the officer thought a white powdery substance on his hood was cocaine.  He told the officer it was bird poop, but the officer performed "field test" on the powdery substance and it came out positive for cocaine.  The quarterback was arrested, he was briefly suspended from his team until he passed a drug test, but he was still in danger of missing the season opener game for his team.

On 8/8/2019 the prosecutor's office stated the test did come back and that there was no controlled substance found.  This is the latest case in which the reliability of "field tests" for drugs has been questioned.  There have been many occasions where an arrest and incarceration resulted from a flawed field test, and it is thought that persons have actually been convicted based on the flawed tests.

According to the Seattle Times, Werts's case is the latest high-profile example of the unreliability of field-testing drug kits, which in recent years have come back with false positives on everything from Krispy Kreme doughnuts to deodorant to breath mints, as The Washington Post reported in 2015. In the process, innocent people have spent months in jail and even pleaded guilty under pressure, The Post reported.

You can read the article here.