Police in Peterborough randomly drug tested 240 people queuing to enter clubs last weekend, using the hi-tech ВЈ32,000 Ion Track Itemiser device to swab their hands for microscopic traces of drugs.
32 revellers tested positive for narcotics including cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamine, with two later arrested for possession and four more for public order offences, the Peterborough Telegraph reported.
“This is the first time we have done this, and it went really well,” local cop Pc Milsom boasted, “We will definitely be looking to do it again.”
The latest random raid happened as a group of top scientists published a new study in the Lancet which said that the current UK drug classification system is seriously flawed with legal drugs alcohol and tobacco both ranking far worse than cannabis and ecstasy in terms of true harm and the impact they have on society. The scientists reached their conclusions by analyzing the �physical harm to the user, tendency to induce dependence in the user, and the effect of its use on families, communities and society in general’ of 20 mind altering substances and asked two independent expert panels to rank them accordingly.
“We hope that policy makers will take note of the fact that the resulting ranking of drugs differs substantially from their classification in the Misuse of Drugs Act and that alcohol and tobacco are judged more harmful than many illegal substances,” the Professor told the Lancet.
“The fact that the two most widely used legal drugs lie in the upper half of the ranking of harm is surely important information that should be taken into account in public debate on illegal drug use.
Discussions based on a formal assessment of harm rather than on prejudice and assumptions might help society to engage in a more rational debate about the relative risks and harms of drugs”,” he added.
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