Attorney General Josh Kaul is trying to persuade Republicans to give him nearly $925,000 in the state budget to upgrade crime lab technology designed to identify synthetic drugs and hire more analysts.
Gov. Tony Evers' budget calls for authorizing Kaul to spend $923,800 from court surcharges over the biennium for upgrading drug detection technology and hiring four more toxicologists to run the machinery.
Kaul told reporters during a video conference Wednesday that the lab's eight current toxicologists are overwhelmed and the number of drug cases involving fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and fentanyl analogues, compounds similar to fentanyl.
