SAN ANTONIO – North East Independent School District police officers repeatedly threw marijuana and other THC products confiscated from students into school dumpsters and trash cans, a months-long probe by KSAT Investigates found.
The practice calls into question the handling of evidence from felony drug offenses as well as raises concerns that drugs and drug paraphernalia were at times put in areas accessible to the public, including children.
KSAT analyzed 371 NEISD PD reports covering all of 2022 for possession of a controlled substance – penalty group 2, which includes Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana.
The records show officers seized the drugs, often in the form of THC vape pens, and would then discard the items after testing them for the presence of drugs instead of placing them in a department evidence room.
Officers typically rinsed out the THC liquid from vape cartridges before throwing them away and usually took steps to discard the items in trash cans only accessible to NEISD faculty and staff.
An NEISD official pointed out that testing the devices for the presence of THC makes them inoperable.
However, the reports also confirm incidents in which an officer repeatedly threw “leafy marijuana” in a school dumpster and a second incident in which a gummy infused with THC was discarded into a faculty trash can.
In multiple other reports, no information was provided by officers about where the seized drugs ended up.
“It should not have…
