Media

Regional News Stories:

Please click on a region of the map to view news stories for that area.

These stories have been collated from regional press sources and no responsibility is taken for the accuracy or content of these pieces.

National and International news

Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent
Sunday February 22, 2004
The Observer

Schoolchildren will be subjected to random drug testing, Tony Blair announced yesterday, under new guidance for headteachers to be published shortly. The move, routine in some American schools, is designed to reassure parents worried about the increasing availability of drugs in the playground.

But it raises serious questions over the invasion of pupils' civil liberties: random testing has not been introduced in workplaces because to take samples without consent from an adult constitutes assault. With around a third of 15-year-olds having smoked cannabis, heads could also find themselves rapidly swamped with positive results.

Drug testing will not be compulsory for schools, but the Prime Minister said new guidance for headteachers next month will advise on how to start a programme if they wish. 'If heads believe they have a problem in their school then they should be able to do random drug testing,' he told the News of the World. 'Guidance will be given to headteachers next month which is going to give them specifically the power to do random drug testing within their schools.'

Heads who want to introduce it will have to gain 'appropriate' consent from either the parents or the pupil, probably depending on the child's age. The move will not require a change in law.

Those who test positive are expected to be offered treatment rather than expelled, a Downing Street spokesman said: 'The emphasis will be on helping students, not penalising them.'

The announcement is reminiscent of previous headline-grabbing initiatives generated during times of crisis for Blair's administration, such as the threat to march yobs to cashpoints to pay instant fines, which ended in grief for Downing Street. But a survey earlier this year suggested almost two- thirds of British parents would support random testing. Several private schools already use it, including Eton.

Comment: See the Drug News section for full discussion and analysis of this issuse

Teachers demand urgent drug talks

Drugs tests in school could provoke legal challenges

Teachers say there must be urgent talks about implementing random drug tests in England's schools - if the government is really serious about the proposal. Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a newspaper interview that head teachers should be allowed to impose drug tests.

But the leader of the NASUWT teachers' union says questions about its legality still have to be answered."The principle and practice require careful consideration," said general secretary, Eamonn O'Kane.

"If it is confirmed that this is a serious proposal, I will be calling for urgent talks with the government to discuss these issues," said Mr O'Kane. "Crucial questions about the legal framework in which the scheme would operate, the practicalities of the proposal and, most importantly, whether it is even an appropriate strategy for combating drug abuse, have still to be answered."

The prospect of legal challenges over drug testing has also been raised by Carolyn Hamilton, director of the Children's Legal Centre at the University of Essex, which examines policy and law affecting children.

Insisting that pupils take drug tests could be in breach of the rights to privacy in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Ms Hamilton told BBC News Online.

"We're very much against random drug testing," she said, both on the grounds of principle and the expense and complexity of how it would be put into practice. And she says that it is not clear what is the intended outcome of such a policy. If large numbers of teenagers are using drugs, she asks what would be the consequence of the testing. Would it mean that large numbers of pupils would be excluded from school?

And she asks whether it be within the remit of a school to take action against a pupil's out-of-school behaviour, when drug taking could have taken place away from the school and outside of school hours.

Questions of consent would be disputed - and there would have to be a rigorous process of verification for samples if there were serious consequences for a positive finding.Ms Hamilton also raises the question of how these tests would be applied, asking whether they would be genuinely "random" or whether they would be aimed at particular pupils.

And the former chief constable of Gwent Police, Francis Wilkinson, who is patron of the drugs charity Transform, also had considerable doubts. He said the scheme would effectively be a test for cannabis, because more harmful drugs are flushed out of users' systems much more quickly.

Mr Wilkinson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It is a non-starter. You can't do it without consent, and a child can't give informed consent, so you would get consent from parents. "Some won't agree and, of course, even if they do, a child can certainly refuse. "Do you say it is a condition of entry to a school that consent is given by parents? The state has the responsibility of educating everyone, so how do you deal with the fact that not all parents and certainly not all children are going to consent?" He added: "It is difficult to see how this could possibly work."

Ministers to 'Monitor' School Drug Testing Plans
Scotsman
22.2.04

By Paul O’Hare, Scottish Press Association

Plans to give school heads new powers to order pupils to undergo random drugs tests south of the border will be closely monitored by the Scottish Executive, it emerged today. The Prime Minister revealed new guidance is to be issued to headteachers on how to deal with pupils suspected of taking drugs. In an interview with the News of the World, Mr Blair said it would include provisions for spot-testing youngsters and the use of sniffer dogs.

The Executive said it will follow the progress of the proposal before considering whether to introduce it in Scottish schools. The spokeswoman said: “Teachers in Scotland are already aware of the need to look out for signs of drug-taking in schools.

“However we will look at any proposal from south of the border to see if there is anything we can learn from them.”

But teaching unions cast doubt on the value of such tests. Alan Smith, president of the Scottish School Boards Association, told BBC’s Politics Show said: “I am a bit surprised that policy seems to be led by a newspaper report. “I would be concerned that this could be introduced without consulting parents properly. “All sorts of issues arise – the infringement of privacy; whether sanctions would be introduced if pupils refused to take part; and parents should obviously be consulted and informed if such tests were to take place.”

David Eaglesham, president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, also questioned the proposals.

He told the programme: “This is an idea which may or may not have some value in the US, is to be imported to England and apparently, if the comments are to be believe, also wholesale into Scotland. “It’s quite nonsensical. There is this idea that schools can deal with all the ills of society in any possible way and they simply cannot.”

SNP education spokeswoman Fiona Hyslop also voiced concern. The Lothians MSP said: “I think this is a knee jerk response. I don’t think its been thought through. “It flies in the face of other education proposals to give headteachers more responsibility and choice as to what they do with pupils. “It doesn’t sit with other education policies and I think it is just a simple gesture to be seen to be doing something rather than actually helping resolve the problem.”

But Tory justice spokeswoman Annabel Goldie cautiously welcomed the proposal. “It is a reflection of modern society that we even have to consider random drug tests in schools but it is a harsh reality that we have to face up to,” she said. “Where there is support from parents and school boards the such testing might be a useful tool in the fight against drugs but only if the Scottish government stops giving out mixed messages in much of its literature and instead adopts a zero tolerance approach to drugs.”

Drug tests 'help children say no'

BBC 22.2.04

Random drug testing in schools could give children a way of resisting peer pressure to experiment, according to an anti-drugs campaigner. Peter Stoker, head of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said the policy had helped pupils stand up to pushers when it was introduced in the US.Supporters say some US schools halved drug use after bringing in the tests.

Mr Stoker told BBC Radio 5: "A lot of the pupils feel quite good about having a system like this in place. "It gives them an excuse to say no when someone is trying to push them into using."But he warned that head teachers must use the tests as a way of getting help to pupils who were dabbling in drugs, rather than punishment.

"Schools have to have a range of responses, which could be anything from a stiff talking to in the manner of a caution, through to referring pupils on to external counsellors or even treatment. "Most important is that those consequences are not just punitive. "Testing mustn't be used as a thin excuse to sling somebody out that a teacher doesn't like the look of. "It has got to be related to positive intervention."

More than 1,000 US schools are now believed to have introduced testing, although a British teachers' leader warned the tests may be impossible in this country. Jean Gemmell, general secretary of the Professional Association of Teachers, said: "My first reaction was to be fairly horrified, mostly because I cannot quite see how on earth it is going to work. "Litigation is rife when teachers are deemed to have done anything intrusive that parents or young people are not happy with. "All of these things are devised for good motives but the practicalities make mincemeat of those intentions."

Cheerleading ban

At Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, New Jersey, pupils are selected randomly by a computer in the school's medical centre and then called out of classes to have their saliva tested. It is reported the scheme has cut drug use by at least half in most year groups, after parents lost a court battle to stop testing when it was first introduced by the school more than three years ago. Many US schools, including Hunterdon, ban children who test positive for drugs from joining in extra-curricular activities like cheerleading, chess and football.

A study by researchers at Oregon Health and Science University found that members of sports teams at schools with random drug testing were about four times less likely to take drugs than those at schools that did not carry out the tests.In his recent State of the Union address President George Bush said testing had helped cut the number of classroom drug users by 400,000.

He told Congress: "The aim here is not to punish children but to send them this message: 'We love you and we don't want to lose you.'"

Comment: don't we just love Peter Stoker, and his unswerving ability to promulgate myth, misinformation and unsubstantiated assertions to support his position. So with no evidence from the UK to support his position, he asserts that drug testing helps young people stand up to 'pushers.' But as we know, young people primarily access substances early on via peers, no pushers. And one of the first substances sampled is the non-testable VSA. So if Peter wants to see pupils forced to piss in to pots in front of teachers cos it will improve their relationship with schools and teachers, and make them more resistant to drugs, good for him. But he's very wrong.

School drug test powers 'unworkable'

IC Berkshire: Feb 22 2004

Controversial plans to give head teachers the power to drugs test pupils would be unworkable and could drive abuse further underground, Tony Blair has been warned. The Prime Minister revealed new guidance is to be issued to heads on how to deal with pupils suspected of taking drugs. In an interview with the News of the World, Mr Blair said it would include provisions for spot-testing youngsters and the use of sniffer dogs.

But the proposals were roundly condemned by teaching unions and drugs charities who fear they could create more problems than they solve. Jean Gemmell, general secretary of the Professional Association of Teachers, said: "My first reaction was to be fairly horrified, mostly because I cannot quite see how on earth it is going to work."Litigation is rife when teachers are deemed to have done anything intrusive that parents or young people are not happy with."

Stressing she was speaking as a former head teacher rather than on behalf of the PAT, she added: "My reaction this morning was one of amazement. I cannot see how it could work and, as a former head and someone who represents teachers, it is adding to their burden of social responsibility to the point that it becomes untenable. "All of these things are devised for good motives but the practicalities make mincemeat of those intentions."

Martin Barnes, chief executive of drugs information charity DrugScope, said the plans would do nothing to reduce drug abuse among pupils at a time when the Government was withdrawing funding specifically earmarked for drugs workers in schools.

"These measures risk driving drug use further underground, an increase in truancies and exclusions and a breakdown in trust between pupils and schools," he warned.

Drug sniffer dogs on school buses
BBC 23.2.04

Drug sniffer dogs are to be introduced on school buses across South Yorkshire. As the debate over the down-grading of cannabis from category B to C continues, police say they will arrest any youth found with the drug.

Chief Inspector Malcolm Chiddey said the move was not a threat, but intended to reassure parents and teachers that drugs in school will not be tolerated.A police officer, along with a responsible adult will carry out the random checks.

The project is being run in conjunction with schools which belong to the Safe and Friendly Environment, a partnership between police, South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive and schools. Chief Insp Chiddey said the scheme was not meant to be a frightener, but part of a wider effort to clamp down on nuisance offences on all buses used by youngsters to travel to and from schools.

"Across the six policing districts in South Yorkshire we don't want drugs on buses, or in schools, and parents can be reassured that we are working to ensure there are no drugs supplied travelling to and from schools," he said. "This action is not a threat, but a reassurance to parents that we're working with them for drug-free travel." And he said that a sniffer dog and officer would be accompanied by a responsible adult, usually someone from a school, on the buses.

"Where the dog indicates there may be drugs we will search that person, and if they are found in possession of controlled drugs they will be arrested. "It is important to know that the change in the law (relating to cannabis) does not affect our powers of arrest for people under the age of 17.

"Children under the age of 17 will be arrested for possession of drugs and papers passed to the Youth Offending Team for consideration."

Comment: While we discuss this issue in more detail in the Drug News section some issues are raised by the Yorkshire Sniffer Dogs issue. The first of these is that if the sniffer dog scheme is an undertaking involving schools and police and the transport authority, it is not possible for the school person to be a responsible adult as they cease to be independent.

Monday February 16, 2004
The Guardian

More than 200 heroin addicts are facing disaster after officials at the Home Office made formal complaints against doctors at a leading private drugs clinics. Seven doctors who have worked for the Stapleford Centre in London are due to appear before the General Medical Council next week after a sustained campaign by Home Office drugs inspectors to charge them with serious professional misconduct. They include Dr Colin Brewer, 62, founder and medical director of the centre and a global leader in the treatment of heroin addiction, his recently retired deputy, four full-time doctors and one who no longer works at the centre.

All seven are expected to deny charges of inappropriate prescribing in a case which will test the basic assumptions of government drugs strategy. If they lose, the centre is likely to close, forcing patients to the black market. The charges relate to the use of methadone, the approved substitute for heroin. Some Stapleford patients have been given "maintenance prescriptions", intended to take them out of the black market and allow them to lead normal, healthy, crime-free lives. Other leading doctors and Home Office officials say all drug users should be forced to abstain from their drugs and that methadone should be prescribed only temporarily, the doses being reduced rapidly under tight supervision.

The Labour MP Paul Flynn, vice-chair of the all-party drugs misuse group, said: "This is so crass. These are people who would be knighted if there was a decent honours system for their courage in prescribing in a way that is of enormous benefit to the drug users and to their communities who may otherwise suffer from their crime."

Bill Nelles, executive director of the Methadone Alliance, who sat on the government's recent review of heroin policy, said: "This is a very poor development, a very negative development. We are very worried about the patients who may end up with no care if these doctors are not allowed to prescribe. This could also have a serious knock-on effect on other doctors who work in this field."

Although the law allows maintenance prescribing, the rules for it are unusually complex. Home Office officials and senior NHS figures have a history of criticising doctors who have specialised in long-term help for heroin addicts. The Stapleford has survived by working closely with the Home Office and by encouraging users to detox.

Colin Brewer, who founded it in 1987, pioneered naltrexone implants to provide painless detox and has been consulted by the GMC as an expert witness. But recently he has clashed with senior NHS figures over the wider use of his detox technique.

Home Office inspectors are understood to have started combing through prescriptions at chemists who supply Stapleford patients in search of breaches of the complex rules. A source close to the Home Office said: "They have been talking about getting rid of every private doctor who prescribes for heroin users."

Ian Harris, 53, from Dagenham, Essex, has been a patient since the centre opened. He said: "At the moment I can function, I can work, I can drive. If I lose my prescription, I'll get uncontrollable cravings for heroin. And, if that happens, you can't do anything. I could try the black market, but I can't afford it and it's all cut with crap. I fail to see what I could do about it." Mr Harris, who is prescribed 200mg of injectible methadone each week, 85 mg of oral methadone and nine dexedrine tablets, pays £30 a month to the Stapleford and £75 a week to the chemist. He has been trying for six years to find an NHS doctor to take him on, but his local drugs consultant insists he will give him no more than 90 mg of methadone a week, none of it injectible, and only on the basis that it is rapidly reduced to nothing. He said: "Just imagine if you couldn't get a supply of the oxygen you need."

Danny Kushlik, director of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said: "Patients dependent on illegal drugs are often treated abysmally. Isn't it ironic that doctors who go out of their way to help them are treated appallingly too?

"If several hundred middle-aged long-term tranquilliser addicts on high doses were summarily thrown off their scripts and left to fend for themselves, there would be public outrage. But junkies are so marginalised and disempowered, that the powers that be know that they can get away with it."

Seven doctors accused of breaking heroin rules
Evening Standard
16 February 2004

Seven doctors at a leading private clinic face disciplinary action over claims they illegally prescribed a heroin substitute to addicts. The medical staff from London's world-famous Stapleford Centre have been accused of breaking strict rules on prescribing methadone, the drug given to wean addicts off the class-A substance. They include founder Dr Colin Brewer, regarded as one of the world's foremost experts on dealing with heroin addiction, as well as other senior members of staff.

The Stapleford Centre, based in Victoria, is accused of illegally giving "maintenance" doses of methadone to heroin addicts - amounts equal to the heroin they would have injected. Government policy is for doctors to give rapidly diminishing doses to get addicts quickly off heroin.

The GMC proceedings come as public concern over heroin mounts, and when graphic pictures of the body of heroin addict Rachel Whitear are being used to educate school pupils on its dangers. Her remains are to be exhumed after a police investigation into allegations that someone else may have been involved in her death.

The seven Stapleford Centre doctors will appear before the General Medical Council next week after a long Home Office investigation. If found guilty of the charges they could be struck off. They include four of Dr Brewer's full-time staff , his former deputy director and another former member of staff. But the case reveals a fault-line in medical thinking over the use of the substance.

Labour MP Paul Flynn, vicechairman of the all-party drugs misuse group, criticised the move. He said: "This is so crass. These are people who would be knighted if there was a decent honours system for their courage in prescribing in a way which is of enormous benefit to the drug users."

Bill Nelles, a member of a recent Government review of heroin policy and executive director of the Methadone Alliance, called it a "very negative development". He said: "We are very worried about the patients who may end up with no care if these doctors are not allowed to prescribe." Dr Brewer has been acclaimed for his drugs work and has pioneeredimplants which lead to painless heroin "detox".

His clinic has become renowned for its work in encouraging drug addicts to come off heroin, and is only thought to have given " maintenance" doses to a tiny number of hard cases.

GMC Website

The Committee will inquire into allegations that Colin Leslie Brewer, a medical practitioner and Medical Director of a private treatment centre, prescribed inappropriately and/or irresponsibly to a number of patients having regard to the nature and/or the amounts and/or the combination of the drugs prescribed.

It is further alleged that Dr Brewer’s management of a number of patients was inappropriate and/or irresponsible because he did not carry out adequate tests of compliance in the course of the management, he had no adequate contact with the patients’ general practitioners and/or he did not maintain adequate contact with the patients.

http://www.gmc-uk.org/index.htm

Comment: This news item is very confusing, and this has not been helped by the Guardian's shoddy reporting of the case. The Guardian appears to have received a very partisan briefing, which has misrepresented the GMC position and either underplayed or not checked some of the 'facts' in the article. The Guardian has indicated that the GMC is looking in to 'illegal' prescribing on the grounds that some prescriptions were maintenance scripts. As the Orange Book and other documents all do highlight the role for methadone maintenance, such an assertion on the part of the Guardian is clearly laughable.

The figures quoted for the named patient are clearly not a weekly script, but are presumably a daily script. And lets face it, it's a hefty script. Especially as the person then drives on top of it. But without wanting to get distracted, lets proceed with caution here. Some parties are holding up the Stapleford staff as martyrs to the cause of responsible, effective prescribing and others are saying that they have prescribed less responsibly. This site abhors persecution of Doctors for servicing client need, but also abhors the profiteering that went on in Central London when the streets were awash with methadone ampoules thanks to generous private Doctors. We don't know which will be the case with the Stapleford, but inaccurate reporting will help noone.

Inhaling alcohol may 'harm brain'

16 February, 2004
BBC

Medical experts say a new device which allows spirits to be inhaled could lead to brain damage. Bristol bar, Il Bordello, is believed to be the first in the country to use the Alcohol Without Liquid vaporiser.

Professor Oliver James, from Newcastle University, said: "This will not only make you very drunk very quickly but is also likely to increase the risk of direct alcohol damage to the brain." Inventor Dominic Simler said the device would reduce the effects of hangovers. Mr Simlar, from London, said: "There is a built-in safety device as it takes about one hour to inhale one shot of alcohol. "It is hardly something people are going to get very drunk on." Mr Simlar says he has sold about 50 machines which cost £1,500 each.

Il Bordello's owner, Liz Lewitt, said the bar had been "overwhelmed" with people using the AWOL machine. "It is a novelty. People enjoy passing it around in a group." Professor James, who is head of clinical medical sciences at the university, said: "This could do irreversable damage to the nerves, lead to swelling and possibly lead to dementia in the long term."

He added that people may be able to use the device to inhale alcohol for 20 minutes and still be able to pass a police breathalyser test.

Is sniffing alcohol bad for you?

Thursday February 19, 2004
The Guardian

Probably not, well no worse than drinking it anyway. The introduction to a bar in Bristol last week of a device that allows customers to vapourise and inhale their chosen tipple has provoked predictable outrage, with experts warning of everything from brain damage to being able to pass breathalyser tests despite being too intoxicated to drive. But according to one of Britain's foremost toxicologists, these fears are overblown.

"I wouldn't have thought it would have any effect on the brain other than the soporific effects that alcohol causes," says Alastair Hay at Leeds University. The alcohol still has to be absorbed into the blood before it reaches the brain, and though this happens much quicker through the nasal membranes than the gut, the maximum alcohol level in the blood should only be about 40-50% higher than if it were ingested. Breathalysers indirectly measure this blood alcohol.

Heavy users could find themselves facing similar problems to those snorting their way through bags of cocaine. "It would be likely to do some damage to the nasal passages eventually," Hay says. "There would be some irritant effect because alcohol is a defatting agent and if it overloaded cells and damaged them there could be some pathology."

The Awol (alcohol without liquid) device passes oxygen bubbles from an adapted aromatherapy machine over spirits to absorb the alcohol, and then delivers them through a tube. Bypassing the stomach and liver, it offers a much more rapid and intense feeling of intoxication.

What it doesn't do, however, is eliminate the calories. "The calories are in the alcohol itself so it doesn't matter how you take it in," Hay says.

Cannabis Reclassification:

Given the acres of coverage devoted to this subject, links are included to a few of the articles collated from the press. For a more detailed discussion about what is being said, and additional sources of information please go to the Drug News Section.

Blunkett's softer line on cannabis 'not enough'
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, should go further than this week's legal downgrading of cannabis and decriminalise or legalise the drug, according to a survey for The Telegraph.
(Filed: 26/01/2004)

Telegraph: http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=9069

Tripping up

New government adverts warning of the dangers of cannabis are so comically patronising they will not deter users, says Richard Morris
Guardian
Tuesday January 27, 2004: http://society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/comment/0,8146,1131455,00.html

Looking for a place to light up legally in London

Amelia Hill takes her faux joint out on the town to test people's awareness of changing laws on cannabis

The Observer : 25.1.04

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1130660,00.html

January 25, 2004

What are you on, minister?
The Times: 25.1.04

The Home Office minister and former dope user Caroline Flint leaves Stuart Wavell gasping as she tries to defend the new soft line on cannabis

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-525-975808,00.html

Ex-drug czar slams cannabis move
BBC: 24.1.04

Mr Hellawell led the government's fight against drugs until 2002
Former drugs czar Keith Hellawell has said reclassifying cannabis could "encourage" young people to use drugs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3425549.stm

'Drugs damage political health'

Guardian: 24.1.04

The government is seen to have made a hash of the change in classification: roundup of reporting from other papers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/editor/story/0,12900,1130060,00.html

Stay cool on cannabis

The Guardian: Leader: 24.1.04

Michael Howard signalled his wish this week to divert a wide swathe of police officers from serious offences to the trivial; to wage war on 50% of young people; and to ensure that tens of thousands of them should be given a criminal record, and some a prison sentence, for an activity that more than two million of them engage in quite safely during the year. He did not quite put it this way.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1130162,00.html

Blunkett attempt to embarrass Howard over smoking backfires

Tory leader told to come clean on his past

The Guardian: 23.1.04

David Blunkett's loose tongue landed him in hot water once again last night after he challenged Michael Howard

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1129376,00.html

Police force lottery over drug law

The Guardian: 23.1.04

A Guardian survey today reveals widespread confusion and inconsistencies about how the police will enforce the new law on cannabis.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1129549,00.html

One simple message: law is being relaxed but drug is still harmful and remains illegal
Guardian: 23.1.04

Government ads aim to end confusion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1129373,00.html

Drugs turn the brains of politicians into marzipan
Times: 23.1.04

Warning. Drugs can seriously damage your political health. They induce hallucinations of potency and fantasies of control.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-152-973942,00.html

Blunkett agonised over relaxation of cannabis law
Times 22.1.04

The Home Secretary expects to ‘take a lot of stick’ over his decision to reclassify the drug

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-2-972674,00.html

'Some patients don't realise cannabis is actually a drug'
Guardian: 20/1/04

As the government downgrades cannabis from class B to C, Alok Jha talks to leading psychiatrist Robin Murray, whose research is fuelling fears about the drug's safety

http://www.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,3605,1126670,00.html

Doctors' fears at cannabis change
BBC 21.1.04

The British Medical Association has launched a last minute attack on the government's decision to downgrade the criminal status of cannabis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3414285.stm

'On cannabis, there are good arguments on both sides. But there is no case for this massive muddle in the middle'
Independent: 22.1.04

Michael Howard reveals how four people smoking dope helped to influence a tough new Conservative policy on drugs

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=483511

Debate @ The Times: Cannabis: high and lows: 13.1.04

Faced with new evidence that cannabis can cause psychosis, should the Government think again about reclassifying it?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-210-962045,00.html

Haze of confusion hangs over dangers to health: Observer: 18.1.04

From the end of this month cannabis will be reclassified as a class C drug, alongside tranquillisers and steroids. But does anyone really know what the dangers of smoking dope are? Jason Burke and Anushka Asthana report

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1125591,00.html

Parenting: Different class, same problem: Times: 18.1.04
Cannabis is soon to be graded as only a class C drug but new evidence points to its dangers, so what

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-525-967346,00.html

So just how potent are our street drugs? Observer: 18.1.04

Anushka Asthana went to south London with £100 and a shopping list of cannabis varieties to buy. 'You can't miss the dealers,' said a friend

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1125592,00.html

Why I ditched my liberal views on dope Observer: 18.1.04

Sue Arnold wanted to legalise cannabis - until the drug triggered a psychotic episode in her son

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1125596,00.html

End the confusion over cannabis: Observer: 18.1.04

Education on drug use is paramount

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,6903,1125691,00.html

New drug law confuses the public: The Times: 16.1.04

BRITAIN’S most senior police officer admitted yesterday that there was widespread public confusion about the use of cannabis because of changes in the drug laws.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-2-965397,00.html

MPs urged to reconsider the dangers of cannabis: Times: 13.1.04

MPs responsible for drugs legislation will be asked today to consider fresh research into the dangers of cannabis, before the drug is downgraded later this month.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-961815,00.html

Psychedelics legal in US but banned in UK are openly available on the internet

David McCandless
Monday February 16, 2004
The Guardian

British recreational drug users are turning to a new generation of designer class A drugs from the United States as demand for ecstasy plummets, the Guardian has established.
The majority of these new drugs are powerful synthetic psychedelics from the same chemical families as LSD, magic mushrooms and mescaline. They are too new to have enticing street names; instead their lengthy chemical names are shortened to abbreviations such as 2C-I, 4-HO-DiPT, and 5-Meo-DMT. Unlike ecstasy, methamphetamine or other synthetic recreational drugs, the new compounds are not made in illicit factories or backroom kitchen laboratories. Instead, "research chemicals", as they are euphemistically known, are synthesised by commercial labs, often based in the US, which openly sell their products on the internet.

The rapid growth in the transatlantic online trade in such chemicals has been fuelled by international differences over legality. While Britain has outlawed all of these drugs - under an amendment to the Misuse Of Drugs Act in February 2002 - they remain legal in most other countries, including the majority of EU member states. Even in the US, despite some of the most draconian anti-drug laws in the world, the bulk of research chemicals are legal to manufacture, sell, possess and consume.

With ecstasy dropping in price and popularity, users and dealers in this country are looking further afield to obtain new highs. A recent Home Office survey found that ecstasy use had dropped 21% in the last year. The street price had also dropped to an all time low of £2-£3 a pill.

But while most research chemicals are too psychedelically powerful to make it as club drugs, one, 2C-I, is rapidly gaining popularity in this country as a dance drug, thanks to some similarities in effect to MDMA, the main ingredient of ecstasy. More than 125 pills of the drug were seized by police last year, including 65 at the Glastonbury festival, and some London dealers are offering it for £10 a tablet.

British police acknowledge that the internet drugs trade is a growing problem. "It is one of our key priorities," a spokeswoman for the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, responsible for policing internet crime, told the Guardian. "Supply of class As is one of the areas we are examining."

Most research chemicals come as crystalline white powder. They can be swallowed, snorted, smoked or injected. Some users prefer to administer them via enema.

Psychedelic stimulants such as 2C-I and 2-CT-2 induce visual hallucinations, energy surges, and euphoria. The most powerful is 5-Meo-DMT, doses of which are smaller than a grain of salt. When smoked, its effects are nearly instantaneous, propelling the user into an alternate reality, described as like "being shot out of the nozzle of an atomic cannon". The experience lasts 10 minutes.

Competitive

Online drug trading is becoming an increasingly competitive and sophisticated industry. Last month, the Guardian revealed that at least five British websites were selling cannabis online.

The leading research chemical sites compete openly to offer the purest product, the best customer service, the fastest deliveries and the lowest prices. Sophisticated e-commerce technology, electronic payment systems and next day courier services guarantee swift, effortless "one-click" transactions. Most sites offer between five and 15 different drugs, with prices ranging from $95 to $350 (about £50-£185) a gram excluding delivery. The maximum order is 5g. Customers must be over 21.

Credit cards and international money orders are accepted. Drugs like 2C-I can be shipped, via UPS or Fedex, worldwide. Next day delivery is often guaranteed. Most will ship to the UK and other EU states with one caveat: "All purchasers are responsible for compliance with any applicable city, county, state, federal or national regulations related to the purchase, possession and use of any and/or all product," reads the disclaimer on one site.

"It's very easy to get them if you know where to go and you're prepared to take the risk," said Charlie, 34, a photographer and graphic designer from south London. He calls himself a regular customer of a research chemicals company based in New York.

Every three months he buys a selection using his credit card. It usually takes three days to arrive via UPS Express. Most recently he made a repeat-order for 1g of 2,5-dimethyoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine (or 2-CT-2 for short), a class A psychedelic similar in effect to mescaline. It costs $175 excluding delivery.

"It's pure. You know exactly what you're getting," he said.

Research chemicals are advertised online as 99% lab pure, but experts warn that that does not mean they are safe. Compared with similar drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms, which have undergone decades of informal human experimentation with relatively few direct fatalities, research chemicals are unknowns. Few human or animal toxicity studies have been carried out.

Even their proponents are at pains to point out the unpredictability and danger involved in reckless experimentation. "It is not reasonable to assume that these chemicals are in any way 'safe' to use recreationally," states the FAQ at erowid.org, the internet's biggest underground drug resource. "When you take a research chemical, you are stepping out into the unknown, and you could be the unfortunate person to discover a new drug's lethal dose."

Safety is a big issue among avid users of research chemicals. Detailed "trip reports" and harm reduction tips are shared through an extensive network of websites and bulletin boards. First time users are expected to read up on their drug of choice and start with small amounts.

Nevertheless, with active doses running to hundredths or even thousandths of a gram, overdoses triggering unexpected reactions can be a very real threat, even with electronic scales sensitive to these weights.

In October 2000, Jake Duroy, 20, from Oklahoma, snorted 35mg of a research psychedelic called 2-CT-7 he had ordered from the web. He was an experienced user but this was a massive amount of the drug to take nasally, which can greatly amplify the effect. He quickly became agitated and violent and two hours later died of a heart attack.

In April the following year, a 17-year-old died after snorting a similar amount of the same drug. A year later in July 2002, 2-CT-7 was emergency-scheduled by the US Drug Enforcement Agency. In their statement, they cited information from trip reports on the internet. After these tragedies, 2-CT-7 was removed from the online marketplace and has not reappeared.

Police warning

The EU recently recommended that member states ban 2C-I as a matter of urgency, although they turned up no evidence of large scale manufacture. The police, however, were quick to sound the alarm. "The chemicals to make this are available and it can be made pretty much anywhere," a source said.

Most research chemicals were invented by one man, Californian biochemist Dr Alexander Shulgin, 78. As an expert witness and adviser to the US Drug Enforcement Agency, he held a licence permitting him to study psychoactive drugs. Over decades, he created hundreds of new mind-altering compounds and then tested them on himself and a small coterie of fellow "psychonauts". The recipes for more than 170 of his materials were published in two biochemical cookbooks in the 1990s and now form the backbone of the research chemicals industry.

Despite the risks, Charlie is prepared to order again, although he admits he gets nervous every time. "I track them via the delivery company's website and can watch when they pass through customs safely," he said. "Then I know I can relax."

Strange and outrageous chemicals

DMT Dimethyltryptamine

Found in minute quantities in certain Amazonian plants and in the human brain. Smoked, the effects are nearly instantaneous and very strange. "The closest you'll get to experiencing death bar actually dying" as one user put it.

Dose 2-60mg
Duration Less than 10 minutes
Legal status Class A
Price £100 a gram on the street

5-Meo-DMT Methoxydimethyltryptamine

A more powerful sister compound of DMT, occurring naturally in the venom of the Bufo alvarius toad but generally smoked in synthesised form. Not uncommon for those who take large amounts to suffer psychological and emotional difficulties for weeks afterwards.

Dose 1-20mg (smaller than a grain of salt)
Duration 5-20 minutes
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $175 (about £90) a gram

2C-I (2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine)

Most likely candidate for the coveted title "the next ecstasy".

Powerful psychedelic stimulant described as a cross between MDMA and LSD but with much gentler side-effects. Already appearing in pill form on the UK dance scene.

Dose 10-25mg
Duration 5-8 hours
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $299 a gram web price; £10 a pill on the street

2-CT-2 (2,5-dimethyoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine)

Respected psychedelic, from the same phenethylamine family as MDMA and mescaline.

Noted for its warmth and "outrageous visuals".

Dose 10-25mg
Duration 5-8 hours
Legal status Class A but available to buy on the internet
Price $299 a gram web price; £10 a pill on the street

Investigation reopened into mystery death of 21-year-old whose body was pictured in anti-drugs campaign

Saturday February 14, 2004
The Guardian

Pictures of the body of Rachel Whitear crumpled on a bedsit floor, her cold hand still clinging to a syringe, became a powerful anti-drugs message. But yesterday police announced that they are to exhume the body of the 21-year-old heroin addict after experts said the levels of drugs in her blood could have been too low to have killed her.

Rachel, 21, died in a Devon bedsit in May 2000 after what was first assumed to be an overdose. But forensic experts called in as part of a new investigation told detectives they needed to exhume the body because the amount of heroin found from a blood test was just one-third of the level that is usually fatal.

A total of 0.05 micrograms of heroin per millilitre of blood was found, a fraction of the 0.15 micrograms associated with a lethal overdose. Finding the cause of death has been hampered by a blunder that meant that no post-mortem examination was carried out.

Devon and Cornwall police who originally investigated her death allegedly bungled the case. After Rachel's family lodged an official complaint to the Police Complaints Authority, in a very rare move, the case was taken out of the hands of the force and the investigation was taken over by the Wiltshire force.

After her death, her mother allowed the release of the graphic photographs; a video showing how drug addiction had killed her was also played in school classrooms. The Guardian has learned that the syringe found in her hand will be subjected to DNA tests to see if Rachel injected herself, or whether someone else was involved.

The DNA techniques police will use were not available four years ago. Drug paraphernalia found in her bedsit will also be tested for traces of DNA. After the body is exhumed, experts will examine tissue samples for signs of any substances that may explain the death.

One theory is that the heroin in Rachel's system was not properly distributed around her body, so that the blood test produced an artificially low result. Another theory is that Rachel had not taken heroin for around a week before her death, and may have been unaware that her tolerance to the drug may have dropped markedly, making her regular dose poisonous. A third possibility is that someone else was involved in the death.

Rachel's stepfather, Michael Holcroft, said: "This has obviously been a very difficult few years for myself and our family, culminating in today's announcement. "Nothing can prepare a family for this. Although we are enormously saddened, we are coming to terms with the fact that an exhumation of Rachel's body is necessary."

Rachel's mother, Pauline Holcroft, said: "It is very upsetting. All we really want is a closure on it, but we know that may never happen. This is an opportunity to find out."It is difficult to live not knowing or understanding what your daughter died from."

The head of the investiga tion, Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett, said: "Rachel was buried without any postmortem examination of her body being conducted. "I am still unable to ascertain with any degree of certainty the cause of Rachel's death.

"After discussion with a suit ably qualified forensic medical expert, I am advised that despite the passage of time, the completion of the postmortem examination could still possibly provide forensic evidence that would assist in identifying the cause of Rachel's death."

In October it was announced that two men arrested in connection with the death would not face charges.An inquest in December 2000 returned an open verdict. The coroner, Richard van Oppen, said: "There is only one thing here today of which I am certain - Rachel did not die from heroin."

No date has been set for the exhumation of the body, which is buried at St Peter's church in her home village of Withington, near Hereford.

The gravestone bears the epitaph: "Peacefully resting where no shadows fall. A dearly loved daughter, sister and friend."

Comment: When Rachel's parents first made the decision to allow her image to be used across the media and in schools, there was an assumption that she had died of an overdose. But there is something disquieting about a system that can turn around an advertising and video campaign, get it distributed in schools and have it endorsed by the local authority even when the cause of death has not been ascertained.

Rachel's death was clearly tragic, no matter what the cause. But the lesson to be learned here is that tragedy is compounded by efforts to explot such strategies for drug prevention crusades. When such a death occurs in the future, can we hope that all those concerned will think again before rushing to exploit the image of the deceased?

Chief medical officer plans dosage crackdown to reduce dependence

Wednesday February 11, 2004
The Guardian

The chief medical officer has warned doctors that far too many tranquillisers are being prescribed, exposing thousands of patients to potential addiction and damage to their health.
Professor Sir Liam Donaldson is concerned that many GPs are not following 15-year-old guidance that is meant to stop excessive prescription. Drugs such as Valium and Librium - once popularly known as "mother's little helper" - should only be used for a month at the most and only for people with distressing symptoms of anxiety.

The government is poised to introduce new restrictions on the use of common tranquillisers prescribed to an estimated 1 million people a year in an effort to reduce the perils of even mildly anxious patients becoming addicted to the sedatives.

Patients will have to return to their pharmacists several times to collect capsules or tablets over the course of treatment to help reduce dependence on the drugs and tackle the black market which sees legally dispensed medicine being syphoned off for the illegal drugs trade.

About 170,000 people are thought to misuse the tranquillisers known as benzodiazepines or "benzos" each year, often using drugs obtained from GPs either by exaggerating daily consumption or multiple registration with different GPs. Benzos were implicated in 222 drug-related deaths in 2001, nearly four times the number linked to amphetamines and one in 13 of all drug-related deaths.

Patients who would not necessarily be aware they were criminally supplying illegal drugs are also said to be a factor. One campaigner for still tighter rules said that "little old ladies" went for repeat prescriptions before selling on the drugs to younger relatives.

Prof Donaldson claims some success in reducing usage, from 15.8m prescriptions by GPs in England in 1992 to 12.7m in 2002. But he recognises that 30% of these are still for 56 or more tablets, suggesting "a high number of patients are receiving long-term treatment". This, he adds, is dangerous, exposing patients to risk of traffic accidents, dependence, and, among older patients, debilitating falls.

Prof Donaldson says primary care trusts must ensure recommendations to monitor and review use of benzodiazepines, last made in 1989, are "still being implemented".

The Department of Health confirmed yesterday that it planned to introduce "installment dispensing" of the tranquillisers to minimise access to excessive doses. A spokesman said this would allow "a GP to write a single prescription that the pharmacist is able to dispense over several days. The scheme will give more control to doctors and reduce the risk substantially of a patient misusing the drug". Pharmacists will receive extra payments under the new controls.

Doctors who fail to observe clinical guidelines can face disciplinary action from NHS trusts or, if their behaviour is regarded as unprofessional, from the General Medical Council. But there has been mounting concern in recent years that the potential for misuse of the drugs has not been adequately recognised by doctors too ready to continue prescribing them.

The government has also promised to try to reduce waiting times for "talking treatments" for anxiety so that psychological therapies might be used instead.

But campaigners say the measures do not go far enough.

Heather Ashton, emeritus professor of clinical psychopharmacology at Newcastle University, says the drugs are making patients dependent at all stages of life, with older people taking them as sleeping pills or being administered them to keep them quiet in retirement homes.

Psychiatric patients are kept on them, she says, long after discharge from hospitals, while pregnant women may be in danger of passing on health problems to their babies.

Tougher rules against supplying, introduced in the recent legislation which downgraded cannabis in the dangerous drugs hierarchy, would not help, she said. "Prosecuting old ladies is just ridiculous. They get their temazepam, sell it to their nephews and go off playing bingo. They only keep one or two for themselves."

Prof Ashton added: "Doctors are also extraordinarily frightened of people with anxiety. They don't know what to do about it." She said money was needed for other health professionals to help wean people off the tranquillisers. There should also be more specialist clinics. Prof Ashton also questioned whether there was much true success in reducing prescriptions. She argued that some patients had merely been moved to a different class of drugs which had similar problems of dependence.

Barry Haslam, a reformed addict from Oldham and founder of the Beat the Benzos campaign, said: "This is nowhere near far enough. Doctors don't want to be dictated to. Benzo addicts get their fix from GPs. If they went out robbing and causing mayhem, the government would have acted years ago."

He and Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat MEP for the north-west of England, met European health commissioner David Byrne to press for EU-wide action. Mr Davies said millions of people were being turned into lifelong addicts "by doctors who continue to ignore prescribing guidelines". In some cases the problem was a social one, not medical. "If you are not in control of your life, at the mercy of money lenders, violent husbands or whatever, you look for a way out."

The charity Turning Point said: "GPs need a lot more support dealing with someone they think has a problem. They need to know where they can refer people."

Addiction dangers of benzo drugs

Benzodiazepines are tranquillisers, with diazepam (including Valium) and temazepam being the most commonly prescribed. The government says 12m prescriptions were issued by GPs in England alone in 2002, a figure to which must be added private and hospital prescriptions.

Heather Ashton, emeritus professor at Newcastle University, suggests there may be 1 million long-term, prescribed users in the United Kingdom.

She said a survey about five years ago indicated 186 long-term "benzo" users in every GP practice in Newcastle and figures from other major towns and cities showed similar problems.

The drugs are meant to offer short-term relief from anxiety and are also used to help people sleep. But they can quickly become addictive. Official guidance to doctors says they should not be used for more than two to four weeks, and only for patients with severe or disabling anxiety that causes "unacceptable distress" or to treat severe or disabling insomnia in patients "who are extremely distressed".

They can cause confusion, lethargy and poor coordination and can affect people's ability to drive. With alcohol or other, illegal, drugs, they can cause medical complications and be a serious hazard to health.

But stopping treatment quickly can cause very similar symptoms to those they are meant to stop, such as anxiety and insomnia. Patients have to be weaned off.

Benzos are also regularly used by drug abusers, often to chill out on the club scene, with people coming down off acid, speed or ecstasy. Addicts extract liquid from temazepam capsules and inject it as a substitute for heroin. This is highly dangerous, as the liquid can block veins and lead to amputations.

The Home Office estimates 174,000 people use the drugs illegally each year, nearly a quarter of them aged 16-24. A 10mg temazepam tablet can change hands for £1 on the black market. They are class C drugs, with penalties for supply recently increased to 14 years.

Class C war: A minister's son, a couple of joints and a campus up in arms over case of cannabis 'double standards'

Independent

07 February 2004

Students caught smoking cannabis: an everyday occurrence, you might think. Hardly a story that would generate much interest in the local press, never mind in national newspapers. Yet this story has some twists. Two students have been caught with the drug. One is the son of a minister who advises the Government on the administration of the law and a trade union leader with links to Tony Blair. The other student has no such connections in the corridors of power.

The university has a tough "one strike and you're out" policy on anyone found with drugs in the halls of residence.

The first student is the son of Harriet Harman, the Solicitor General, and Jack Dromey, the deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union. He is banned from university accommodation, but then allowed back. The other student is banned from university accommodation and kept out. He sleeps on friends' floors, then he finds a flat miles from campus. Then, when he is trying to find his way back to his flat he is hit by a train and killed.

The student paper accuses the university of "double standards". The university hits back, suggesting the students are being sensationalist. And so a high-achieving university descends into controversy, and the arguments rage about what should happen to students caught with cannabis. This is the situation at Warwick University this weekend.

The story began in the autumn when Joe Dromey, a first-year history and politics undergraduate, was caught with cannabis in his room on his second day at the university. Mr Dromey, aged 19, was immediately told he would have to leave his digs. Ms Harman avoided personally representing her son at the ensuing appeal, for fear of being accused of putting undue pressure on the university.

One of her colleagues, Jack Straw, took a similarly circumspect attitude when his son, William, was cautioned by police after he tried to sell cannabis to an undercover tabloid reporter. The appeal of Ms Harman's son was successful and he was allowed back on campus, although at the least desirable hall of residence, Cryfields, which is dubbed the "Gulag". He has since had to move again, after tabloid journalists found his address.

Ben Holloway, the other student, was found with cannabis in his room towards the end of his first term at the university. According to fellow students, the engineering student was caught with cannabis at a party in Whitefields, his hall of residence, which resulted in another student being expelled for possessing a substantial amount of the drug.

Mr Holloway was forced to leave the hall of residence and find a flat. He was not thought to have appealed against his eviction. One night, several weeks later, when he was returning home from a night out drinking with friends, he wandered on to the railway track. An inquest into his death has been opened and adjourned. His funeral will be held on Monday.

While the university is refusing to make any public comment about either case, it points out that it believes its appeals system is fair and open to every student. A source said: "Parental background would not be considered as a ground for a successful appeal." One senior academic pointed out that it might have helped Mr Dromey's case that he was only in his second day at the university and was therefore given a second chance.

Despite that, Bob Jones, the president of Warwick University's student union, said he had raised the issue "informally" with the university authorities "because of this issue of double standards". He said: "The policy is usually that you always get thrown out. "But then there was this appeal and it was seen that he should not be thrown out. I did not ask the exact details of this appeal."

In the students' union ­ where drugs on campus was an issue in elections taking place yesterday, with some candidates calling for a "three strikes and you're out" policy ­ the contrast between the treatment of the two undergraduates was a talking point.

Chris Welford, a third-year engineering student, said: "You can't directly blame the university for what happened on that railway line. But what you have here is two different stories: one bloke with friends in high places and who is not treated too badly and another who is apparently an ordinary guy."

William Johnson, the editor of the Warwick Boar, the student newspaper, said Ms Harman's son had been granted "leniency" by officials. He said: "We have been concerned about double standards. We feel the university's zero-tolerance eviction policy is unfair."

The newspaper has tried in recent days to steer the controversy away from the "double standards" issue and move it towards the university's overall policy on drugs. Senior university staff, who have dismissed claims of hypocrisy as "twaddle", believe it was a bit rich of the newspaper to argue that it was more interested in the overall policy after a headline which read: "Government minister's son is caught smoking cannabis and stays in campus halls whilst residents mourn the loss of a friend forced to live alone in Coventry for the same offence." They argue that the students could and should have published the story without reference to Mr Dromey.

But the student newspaper argues that the university's hardline stance should be changed in an era when cannabis possession has been downgraded to class C by the Government. "In our age group there is a lot of pressure to try drugs and it can be more detrimental to a student's welfare to evict them from their accommodation than to have any incidents dealt with by the police," Mr Johnson said.

Yesterday, one student on the campus was clear about what lessons should be learnt from Mr Holloway's case. Dave Reynolds said: "It's not perhaps the fact that he was kicked out because he broke the rules. The real shame is that he was kicked out without any support afterwards."