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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Cozart gets high on market debut
Lucy Randall The Observer
Sunday 01 Aug 2004 The best-performing stock market debut of the year took place last week. Cozart, a specialist medical equipment firm, saw its shares nearly double as they went on to the AIM market, closing at 54p against a list price of 30p. They were boosted by an announcement from the Home Office that the company will be used in the Government's planned extension of testing for illegal drugs use. The Home Office started working with Cozart in July 2001. The first project was testing arrested suspects for illegal drug use in just three areas - Stratford and Hackney in London, and Nottingham. By March 2003 the scheme was covering 77 sites. The project has been extended again, and teenagers will be tested in 10 new target areas: Bradford, Calderdale, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, and Camden, Newham and Southwark in London. The tests will involve teenagers charged with offences such as burglary, car crime and theft. The aim is to combat the links between teenagers and drugs and crime. Offenders charged with these offences, aged 14 to 17, who test positive for illegal drugs, could be sent for rehabilitation treatment. Burglary, theft and car crime have often been linked to drug taking. The chief constable of Avon and Somerset, Steve Pilkington, has said that drugs have been responsible for the soaring crime figures in Bristol reported in 2002 - robberies in the West Country city increased by 77 per cent, and car crime and burglaries by 30 per cent. Before Cozart's pioneering techniques, a sample of blood, hair or urine had to be sent to a laboratory to test for illegal drugs. Cozart, however, has developed the world's first onsite, portable drugs test system. The system, now being put into action in Britain, is painless and requires only a swab of saliva from the suspect. This is placed in a mobile-phone sized machine, which analyses the sample and detects illegal drugs. Rather like the roadside breathalyser used on drivers, the portable drug test yields results in a matter of min utes. The device, known as Rapiscan, will not be used for alcohol testing but it can detect traces of cocaine, crack, heroine and speed, and can test simultaneously for five different class-A drugs. Although in the UK use of the device will restricted to hard drugs, the system can easily be modified to detect cannabis and alcohol. Caroline Flint, the Home Office Drugs Minister, said last week: 'Overall crime is falling but class-A drugs are still the cause of many crimes. By targeting drug-using offenders early we can get them into treatment and away from a life of crime.' The scheme will be aimed especially at teenagers, whom the Home Office believes are vulnerable to the growing drug-taking culture and more likely than others to experiment with drugs. Two-thirds of teenagers are estimated to have tried an illegal drug and about a third use recreational drugs regularly. The drug-testing scheme is part of the Government's criminal justice interventions programme designed to work against drug-related crime, and costs UKP500m over three years. Cozart was founded in 1993 by two brothers, Christopher and Phillip Hand, who are now managing director and finance director.
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