photo: In a N.Y. State Of Mind

Many of the dollar bills you come in contact with in Utah carry cocaine.  The American Chemical Society conducted a study in 2009 that found traces of cocaine on 90% of the U.S. paper currency. However, most of the bills were not used to snort cocaine and did not even pass through the hands of a drug kingpin.  The bills usually come in contact with the cocaine through indirect methods. The few bills that are actually used for the purposes of cocaine continue to carry some of the drug. Cocaine is an extremely fine powder and when the contaminated bills change hands they leave a trail of cocaine.  The largest spread of the drug happens at banks, casinos, and other big gatherings of currency. When the contaminated bills make it to a bank they are often put in a counting machine or ATM.  Then, the cocaine passes to the other bills in the machines.  More importantly the fine powder is left behind in the machines and continues to transfer to other dollar bills passing through. Such small amounts of the very fine powder would only be detectable on the hands of those who come across very large quantities of dollar bills.  This type of environmental contamination from large amounts of currency has occurred in Utah. In the case of the State of Utah v. Dale Moroni Gibbons the Utah criminal defense attorney Clayton Simms argued that the defendant, the Chief Financial Officer of Zions Bank, was surrounded by U.S. currency that was contaminated with illegal substances, including cocaine.   In closing arguments at the jury trial Clayton Simms argued that the defendant’s positive hair test for cocaine was a result of environmental contamination.  The jury acquitted the defendant of all charges including possession of a controlled substance, and he walked out of court a free man.