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The Germs' Drummer Arrested For Carrying Soap
dwrugh writes "The drummer for the seminal punk band The Germs, Don Bolles, was arrested in Orange County because a field-test kit indicated his bottle of Dr. Bronner's soap contained GHB, the date-rape drug. (Here is an interview with Bolles.) Using the same test kit, available on the web for $20 for a pack of 10, according to Bolles' attorney on NBC this morning, other soaps tested positive for GHB. But of course since it's just soap, when you test it in a real crime lab it comes back negative. Makes you wonder what other common household products also test positive, and how many others have been arrested based on faulty test kits who didn't have the resources to defend themselves."
This is a borderline Slashdot story anyway, but why is it in the IT section where it clearly does not belong? Science? Maybe. IT? No.
As the original poster says, the sample is sent off to a proper lab for testing. Cheapo field test kits don't go to court, so the original poster's comment about people having resources to defend themselves is inaccurate.
No, but one of the easiest ways of synthesizing GHB is with GBL, which is used as an industrial cleaner. If you've ever taken any significant quantities of GHB in concentrated form, you'll get that sickly feeling in your stomach whenever you pass someone cleaning off graffiti, etc.
So no doubt the test being used reacts to both GHB and GBL.
- These characters were randomly selected.
Basically, Dr. Bronner's is the Time Cube of soaps.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
If you mix coconut oil (palmitic acid) with caustic soda, you get what in German is known as "natrium palmitat", or NaPalm for short.
Mix that with gasoline and you get something that burns very hot and sticks to the skin. Nasty!
Ehem. The Germs are todays breed? The only thing I find more disturbing then the fact that there still are punk-acting bands is the fact that so many people assume they'd know the difference.
The Germs are old.
Quack, quack.
I recall reading about that study and did a search. A BBC News article can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6152646.stm
Regular soap only makes the germs fall off. See http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa081301 a.htm.
Its the anti-septic types of soap that are dangerous.
rewriting history since 2109
Actually, this isnt the case.
GHB is largely unavaliable these days, so most people ingest whats actually 1,4-Butanediol, which is an industrial cleaning chemical. Funny that a soap might contain an industrial cleaning chemical isnt it... really really wierd...
The lye in ordinary soap dissolves a layer of your skin, and all the various microbes simply wash away with it. Soap does kill some organism, of course, but it's not an antiseptic as such.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Sorry,
Speaking as an ex-cop, never, EVER, *EVER* consent to a search.
Doesn't matter if you might get hassled while the cop tries to find a reason to search, you also have the right to keep your mouth shut. Unlike a warrant-based search, which must state *specifically* what they are looking for, and thus limits them to the places where such items can be found, consent searches allow *anything*. And, once you consent, you can't take it back, since a smart cop will isolate you while they perform the search.
Frankly, you may not know what is in your car/home, etc. All you need is for one of your idiot friends to have left something behind you didn't know about.
A cop who asks for consent is fishing. If a cop has probable cause, he won't ask, he'll get the warrant, or search immediately if allowed (exigent circumstances, probationers, etc). The more they try to convince you, the more sure you can be that they don't have anywhere near enough evidence for a warrant.
Folks think that if they consent to a search, the cop will feel better about them. Of all the folks I searched with consent, the *best* I felt toward them was mild contempt for voluntarily surrendering their constitutional rights. The rest? Well, frankly, I still get a real belly-laugh over the folks I arrested for drugs, illegal weapons, stolen merchandise, etc because they were dumb enough to give me consent to search.
The "Maguire Seven" were wrongly convicted as members of the IRA running a bomb-making factory out of their home. The evidence pointed to the fact that a chemical found in explosives was found on the dish-washing gloves of one of the convicted. It later turned out that this chemical was common in household cleaning agents. A movie was made about this case, primarily about the "Guildford Four", but the "Maguire Seven" are related to this case being of the same family. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Name_of_the_Fa ther
After they were convicted of murder and received the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, the judge expressed regret that the Four had not been charged with treason, which then still had a mandatory death penalty.
On February 9, 2005, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair issued an apology to the families of the eleven people imprisoned for the bombings, and those related to them who were still alive, by saying, in part: 'I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice (...) they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated.'
The movie is very good and well worth a watch if you're interested in recent Irish history, miscarriage of justice.