Winchester Fails The Test....

From This Is Hampshire .net

Police to carry out drug tests outside pubs By Chris Semple

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.

Advertisment 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.

The Irony of it, testing people for illegal drugs as they head into the place where you can legally get tanked up on the one drug the government makes a fortune in taxes from and society actively encourages you to partake in.

It's good to see the boys in blue of the Winchester constabulary have so much time on their hands. Doubtless no theft, muggings, murders, rapes or anything else to worry themselves about in that fine old city.

Except thats not actually the case.

In the period 2004-2005, according to "UpMyStreet" the website dedicated to telling you the best places (and worst) in the uk to live, there were around 1300 crimes against the person, 100 sexual offences, 500 thefts from vehicles and 300 burglaries in Winchester. Hardly paradise city is it? And in spite of what the 'War On Drugs' lobby will have you believe, the vast majority of offences commited are nothing whatever to do with someone trying to support a habit.

I bet they have one of the highest incidences of drivers being stopped too, as life is that 'dull' for the local plod.

I still say such offensive, facist tactics should be used on the houses of parliament without warning before being allowed to be unleashed on the general public. Be interesting to see the test results from our glorious leaders, and how keen they'd be to enforce these pathetic nanny laws from that point onwards....