Ohio Police Offer To Test People’s Meth For Zika Virus

GRATIS, OH — An Ohio police department put an unusual — and contradictory — warning Monday on its Facebook page. In one paragraph, the Gratis Police Department offered to test methamphetamine people may have purchased in a three-county area for the Zika virus. The police department appeared to be especially accommodating, offering to make a house call if people are shy about bringing their meth to the police station for free testing.

In the next paragraph, the police department acknowledged the highly addictive stimulative can’t be a host for Zika, which is primarily transmitted by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito.

So, what’s going on?

“Make a catchy post, people see it, people share it,” Gratis Assistant Police Chief Dennis Blankenship told television station WTHI. No one has taken the police department up on its offer to test meth for Zika, and Blankenship said he has “no intention of arresting anyone this way.”

“My goal is not to throw someone in jail over this,” Blankenship told the television station, adding that “a lot of places are super-hard on drug addicts.”

Instead, he hopes the post will increase awareness of spikes in meth use in Montgomery, Darke or Butler counties and point addicts to different avenues for treatment.

“Our job as a police department, not only toss people in jail, it's to protect people and help change people minds,” Blankenship said.

The police department’s Facebook post was widely shared, sparking some backlash against the department, but also support. Some users said the police department’s offer constitutes entrapment, to which the department replied:

“Say I tell you to go buy me some meth as a part of an undercover drug bust. And then I arrest you for going and buying meth,” the department wrote “That is entrapment. This situation is not.

“For it to be entrapment I would have to persistently attempt to persuade you to commit a crime that you would not normally commit.”

Many people defended meth users, causing one person to comment:

“I’m sitting here reading all the comments and wondering how people can actually defend meth heads, you say they aren’t hurting anyone, but I’m sure they have loved ones that don’t want to see them die, so that is hurting someone!!and then to say if u use a certain pipe it will be ok .. this is sickening. Don’t blame the police for at least caring enough to put the warning out to people who do use.”

The police department replied that cleaning up an average meth lab costs taxpayers about $10,000.

Other police departments have made similar offers. In 2017, a police department in Oklahoma offered to test meth for gluten. A California police department made the same offer, asking: “Is your meth laced with deadly gluten? Not sure? Bring your meth down to the PD and we will test it for you for free!”

Here is the post from the Gratis Police Department:

Photo by Stepan Kapl / Shutterstock