KIRSCH, J.
At the bench trial, after establishing the chain of custody and storage of the alleged marijuana, the State sought to have Deputy Petree perform a field test in the courtroom on a sample of the plant substance. Over Doolin’s objections, the trial court permitted Deputy Petree to conduct two field tests on the material. Deputy Petree testified that the second test indicated the presence of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
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At trial, Doolin timely objected to the admission of the field test, asserting that a proper foundation had not been established. He argued that the courtroom was not a controlled environment, Deputy Petree was not a chemist, and that “there’s a little higher burden than having an officer do a field kit test here – here in the courtroom.” Tr. at 44-45. The trial court overruled the objection and permitted Deputy Petree to conduct the field test. Prior to starting the test, however, Deputy Petree explained the procedures he would follow: place a small sample of the plant material in a glass bottle, drop in a capsule, shake the bottle and break the capsule, and “[i]f it turns blue,” then that indicates the presence of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Id. at 45. Deputy Petree also stated that the procedure was routinely used by the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department. Doolin again objected, noting that there were no seals, was no showing of the accuracy of the tests, and was no showing that the kit was in proper working order. The trial court overruled the objection and permitted Deputy Petree to conduct the field test. Before starting, Deputy Petree inquired whether there were any gloves available to him in the courtroom; there were not. He proceeded, but during Deputy Petree’s first test, the ampoule did not break and was stuck, and no results were yielded. Id. at 48. The State then requested permission for Deputy Petree to conduct a second test, which was granted over Doolin’s objection. Deputy Petree testified that the results were blue, indicating the presence of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana; counsel for Doolin voiced his disagreement that the results were, in fact, blue or otherwise conclusive.
The State urges that under the precedent of Burkett v. State, 691 N.E.2d 1241 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998), trans. denied, we should find no error in the admission of Deputy Petree’s field test. In Burkett, police stopped a speeding car, driven by Burkett. Burkett failed a field sobriety test and a portable breath test, and before he was transported to jail, the officer conducted a patdown search of Burkett for officer safety. The officer discovered a green, leafy substance in Burkett’s pocket. At the jail, the officer conducted a field test on the substance, and the result was positive for marijuana. Id. at 1243. He was charged and convicted of possession of marijuana.
On appeal, Burkett claimed that the trial court erred in admitting the results of the field test because the State failed to provide sufficient foundation for both the testifying officer’s qualifications and the reliability of the field test. Id. at 1245. A panel of this court upheld the trial court’s decision that the police officer was a qualified expert because he testified that: (1) he was trained to administer the test; (2) he followed the proper procedures; (3) the test consisted of three ampoules of acid that change color to show the presence of marijuana; and (4) the sheriff’s department routinely used the test. Id. As for Burkett’s claim that the State failed to present a sufficient foundation for the reliability of the field test, which is Doolin’s claim in the present case, the Burkett court concluded that the field test was admissible because “the results of this type of test have been admitted in other cases,” citing Houston v. State, 553 N.E.2d 117, 119 (Ind. 1990) and Bellamy v. State, 259 Ind. 254, 286 N.E.2d 401 (1972). Id. at 1246.
As Doolin observes, both Houston and Bellamy, upon which the Burkett court relied, were decided prior to the adoption of Rule of Evidence 702, with which we are concerned now. Furthermore, neither Houston nor Bellamy challenged the reliability of the field test. [Footnote omitted.] While Burkett ultimately determined that the field test on marijuana conducted by the officer at the jail was admissible, we are not persuaded that it stands for the broad proposition that any unnamed in-court field test for marijuana is admissible, so long as the testifying officer states he or she has experience with the test and that the department routinely uses it. To the extent that Burkett could be interpreted to direct that result, we respectfully decline to follow it.
Here, although Deputy Petree provided a general overview of the several steps he intended to follow when conducting the test and stated that his department routinely utilizes the field test, he did not provide any specific name or otherwise identify the test, indicate its reliability or rate of accuracy or error, note the scientific principles on which it is based, or recognize any standards regarding its use and operation. We agree with Doolin that the deputy’s explanation at trial essentially was nothing more than: “break an ampoule of something over the challenged plant material and shake it up. If whatever is in the ampoule causes the material to turn blue, it’s marijuana.” Reply Br. at 1. The State simply presented no foundational evidence of the test used. Because of this dearth of evidence regarding this field test, we find the State failed to establish the test’s reliability under Rule 702(b), and the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the results into evidence. See West, 805 N.E.2d at 914 (trial court erred by considering results of Draeger field test, conducted at scene to detect anhydrous ammonia, because of lack of evidence at trial regarding test’s scientific reliability). We note that our holding today does not represent a conclusion that all field tests of marijuana conducted in the courtroom are, per se, inadmissible; nor do we find that in-court field tests on marijuana may never be used as substantive evidence of guilt, as Doolin asks us to do. Rather, we hold that under the facts and circumstances of this case, the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted the results of Deputy Petree’s in-court field test because of the lack of foundation as to its reliability.
BAKER, J., and BROWN, J., concur.