Lincoln County Deputy Bradley Weeks honored for efforts as Drug Recognition Evaluator

LINCOLN COUNTY – A Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy was recently honored for his efforts as a Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE).

Deputy Bradley Weeks this month received a 2024 DRE Outstanding Performance Award from the Wisconsin Association of Chiefs of Police DRE Program after conducting a pair of “unusual drug influence evaluations” last year – one in August involving inhalants, and another in September with hallucinogens, the Sheriff’s Office said.

“The hallucinogen evaluation involved psilocybin mushrooms, which was rare, but the inhalant evaluation was remarkable,” the Sheriff’s Office stated.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the inhalant evaluation involved a woman who had crashed her car, used nitrous oxide and was taken to a hospital. Weeks responded to the hospital, issued field sobriety tests and made the arrest before conducting a drug recognition evaluation.

“A blood sample was obtained and sent to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) for testing,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “The lab believed that the detection of nitrous oxide in the blood was not possible for a routine traffic investigation because its half-life was only five minutes, and the blood wasn't obtained until about an hour after its use.”

WSLH then contacted a lab in Pennsylvania and learned that the detection window may be longer than previously known. The lab also provided specific information regarding specimen collection, storage, testing intervals and timely testing, and nitrous oxide was ultimately detected in the blood sample.

“This case that Deputy Weeks investigated significantly added to what we know about nitrous oxide detection in the blood and provided valuable information to the scientific and law enforcement communities, as well as recommendations for collection, specimen handling and testing, which reflects great credit upon him, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and the Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) program,” the Sheriff’s Office stated.