Flawed drug tests lead to thousands of cases of police involvement in new births in Oregon and across the US

Think Out Loud

Flawed drug tests lead to thousands of cases of police involvement in new births in Oregon and across the US

Clean

Published on Feb 26, 2026, 1:21:19 PM
Total time: 00:11:58

Episode Description

There were more than 70,000 cases of alleged drug use during pregnancy sent to law enforcement officials across 21 states over six years, including Oregon. As reported in The Marshall Project, these cases involved unreliable drug tests that show inaccurate results, are difficult to read or are simply wrong. In Oregon, and in 12 other states, welfare agencies automatically report any positive test result to authorities. Shoshana Walter is a staff writer for The Marshall Project and reported on this trend with Jill Castellano. Walter joins us to share more on these tests.

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