Yes the drugs can be field tested, but that will only show a trace. If you get the sample out of water or any other place that could cause it to be contaminated lawyers will challenge your sample and test. Another concern is that a more reliable test must usually be done by the state lab, average turn around time approx. 1 lifetime. Once you start getting into expert witnesses talking about chemical compounds you can loose jurors. It only takes one. There is an old saying about going to court, if the law is on your side, pound on the law, if the facts are on your side, pound on the facts, and if the facts and law are not on your side pound on the table. You get one person out of twelve and it's a hung jury. We have currently an approx. 800 case back log, the Solicitor can't keep retrying cases. Please don't read into this that I am trying to justify all no knock warrants but alot more forces come into play on some of these decisions.
Thanks for explaining. My whole motive in asking the questions I ask is because I absolutely hate the no knock and if there's a way for it to become a thing of the past, I'm all for it.
Innocent people (and the not so innocent user) should be able to be safe in their own homes. We haven't reached the point where a drug offense is eligible for the death sentence yet not only are the users in danger but so are innocent people.
There has to be a better way than to have people breaking into people's homes. It puts too many in danger and too often innocent people end up being victimized.