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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Police to carry out drug tests outside pubs
Chris Semple Basingstoke Gazette
Friday 17 Nov 2006 A MAJOR new drive to catch people on illegal drugs is being launched in Winchester tonight and is targeting young people visiting the city's pubs. In a groundbreaking operation, police will be testing people on their way into four city pubs and stopping and searching anyone who gives a positive result. It is one of the first times that the machine, called Ion-Track, has been used in the UK to test people on their way into venues. It can detect everything from cannabis to crack. continued... Previous police operations have focused on testing people already suspected on having consumed illegal drugs, or on testing areas in pubs and clubs where drug use is suspected - such as toilets. Now Hampshire Constab-ulary is to take the process one step further, rooting out drug users before they enter venues, and they have teamed up with Winchester's Pub-watch scheme to make the testing a compulsory condition of entry. The initiative will get under way this evening with officers stationing themselves outside Savannahs, The Gaolhouse, O'Neills and Bar 31. The testing will involve the door supervisor brushing a small tab across the tips of customers' fingers and then inserting the tab into the machine. If the customer gives off a positive reading for any illegal substance they will be detained and searched by police. Those testing positive will also be banned from entering the pub that night, while anyone actually caught with drugs on them will be arrested. Sgt Karen Fisher said: "An operation like this is a very successful way of tackling the drugs problem in Winchester city centre and the co-operation of the licensees and the public is invaluable to us." The Ion-Track machine has already been used this year at clubs in Brighton and Hove and at various festivals throughout the summer including Winchester's Hi Fi. Police in Kent and Wales also used the machine earlier this year to test for drug use among school pupils. The £32,000 machine, which looks like a fax machine, picks up traces of drugs from a person's sweat and is so sensitive that it can even tell whether the person tested is a regular user of drugs or has just come into contact with them through something like a handshake. As well as Class A drugs like crack and cocaine, the machine can also pick up Ecstasy, amphetamines, cannabis and date rape drugs such as GHB and Rohypnol. http://www.thisishampshire.net/ -- WebBooks Amazing Amazon Store: http://astore.amazon.co.uk/webbooks05
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