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National and International news

Mark Honigsbaum
Saturday June 25, 2005
The Guardian

Bad news for psychedelic fungi fans. There are just 24 more shopping days before magic mushrooms are declared illegal - and that's official.
Ignoring pleas from mushroom retailers and consumers, the government yesterday announced that clause 21 of the Drugs Act 2005, reclassifying psilocybe mushrooms as a class A drug alongside heroin and crack cocaine, will come into force on July 18.

From that date, importation, possession or sale of magic mushrooms will be punishable by a life sentence, effectively outlawing sales via market stalls, head shops and the internet.

Laying the statutory instrument before parliament, the Home Office said the only exception would be for wild mushrooms, growing on uncultivated land.

Landowners who are unaware they have a controlled substance, or who pick the mushrooms with the intention of delivering them to the police, will also be exempted.

Transform, the drug policy group which has been a vocal critic of clause 21, immediately condemned the Home Office's decision, saying the exemptions did little to clarify what it considered flawed legislation.

"How is someone supposed to know what is uncultivated?" asked Transform's director, Danny Kushnick. "This has nothing to do with clarifying the law or goods drugs policy. It's simply about shutting down vendors who have been selling mushrooms."

The Entheogen Defence Fund, a group set up to protect the interests of mushroom retailers and consumers, said the announcement would make no difference to its campaign to have clause 21 overturned through judicial review.

Declaring criminalisation of magic mushrooms a retrograde step, it predicted the reclassification would simply encourage more youngsters to try ecstasy, LSD, heroin and cocaine.

"The sale of 100,000 kilos of magic mushrooms per annum has had a big impact on the reduction of the illegal use of soft and hard drugs," said EDF's chairman, Mike Bashall. "Expect more crime and more deaths related to illegal drugs."

Backed by Dutch wholesalers, for whom the UK has become a lucrative export market for psychedelic fungi, the EDF has raised £10,000 to challenge the British legislation. It points out that in the Netherlands the sale of magic mushrooms is legal and says that clause 21 could be in breach of European Union law making it illegal to place restrictions on free trade except in specific circumstances, such as for the protection of health and life.

Caroline Flint, the Home Office minister, who spearheaded the legislation through parliament shortly before the general election, said mushrooms could trigger psychosis and there was evidence users could be at risk of self-harm.

However, a Dutch study found no evidence to link magic mushrooms with psychosis and said that mushrooms did not lower users' violence threshold.

Since consumption usually took place at home or in the open air, "there is no inconvenience to other people," it concluded.

Children aged as young as 10 are regularly dicing with death by inhaling solvents. More 10 to 16-year-olds die in the UK from Volatile Substance Abuse (VSA) than from using illegal drugs.

Dangerous Highs is a joint report from ChildLine and the National Children's Bureau (NCB) published today. It reveals that children as young as 10 are regularly abusing solvents. The report, which analysed over 350 calls made to ChildLine about VSA, shows children are trying to escape from their problems by getting high on solvents.

Report author Simon Blake, assistant director of children's development at NCB, said: "In the 1980s everyone knew about the problem of glue-sniffing, but over the last 20 years it has slowly slipped from public view. "Yet VSA continues to cause death and harm to many."

VSA often begins at an early age as the products used, including glue and paint, are available in most homes.

NCB and ChildLine are calling for a range of measures including legislation to minimise the quantity of dangerous solvents in products and education for parents and carers so they can identify VSA.

Fewer heroin and cocaine dealers are arrested since cannabis downgrade

Martin Bright, home affairs editor
Sunday June 19, 2005
The Observer

The number of hard drug dealers arrested in London over the last four years has plummeted by nearly 20 per cent, despite assurances from senior police officers and government ministers that they would make the fight against heroin and cocaine a priority.
Figures released to the London Assembly by the Metropolitan Police show that 2,384 people were arrested for supplying drugs in the capital in 2001. By last year the figure had fallen to 1,932 - a drop of 452, or 19 per cent.

The findings will raise further questions over the Home Office decision to downgrade the classification of cannabis, which was intended to give police more time to focus on hard drugs. Despite reclassification in January 2004, drug arrests continued to fall last year, with 122 fewer dealers arrested in London than in 2003.

The latest British Crime Survey showed that one in 20 Londoners had taken hard drugs in the last year, the highest figure for the whole country. At the same time, the price of cocaine and heroin has been falling.

Liberal Democrat policing spokesman Graham Tope said: 'These figures are deeply worrying. Serious questions must be asked why it is that hard drug use in London continues to rise, yet the number of drug dealers caught continues to fall so dramatically.'

He added: 'When cannabis was downgraded by the Home Office, ministers promised that the extra time officers would have would mean that they could tackle hard drug dealers. This is clearly not happening.'

Scotland Yard estimated that the reclassification of cannabis saved them 14,620 hours that would have been spent processing arrests of small-time users. But this has not translated into arrests of class A dealers.

Four years ago Lambeth borough commander Brian Paddick sparked a national debate when he ordered his officers to stop arresting people for possession of small amounts of cannabis and concentrate on hard drug dealers. But the newly published figures show that arrests of cocaine or heroin dealers in the south London borough have nearly halved, from 186 in 2001 to 101 last year. The figures vary dramatically across the capital, sparking fears that there was no consistent policy on hard drugs.

The police said the figures were a result of concentrating on big dealers rather than minor street sellers. But that does not explain why in some parts of the capital - such as Hackney in east London and Ealing in west London - arrests have gone up. This would suggest very different approaches by police in different parts of the city.

The statistics will worry the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, who said he would make the fight against hard drug use one of his key priorities when he took over the job in February.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said that the police were now concentrating on 'higher-tier dealers' by working closely with the National Crime Squad and Revenue & Customs to target more serious offenders.

'While there may be a reduction in the number of arrests, actual seizures of class A drugs have increased,' she added. In one seizure in October last year, 75 kilos of cocaine were intercepted with a street value of about £12 million.

A spokeswoman for drug campaigners Drugscope supported the police: 'It is not the number but the quality of arrests that matters. Low- level dealers tend to be replaced very quickly. It makes more sense to tackle big dealers: it has more impact and is a better use of their time.'

· The debate on cannabis will be intensified by tonight's BBC Panorama programme, which will examine the growing evidence of links between the drug and psychotic illness in young people. 'Cannabis: What Teenagers Should Know' includes new research about the long-term damage caused by cannabis use and evidence that it can act as a 'gateway' to other drugs.

In March, mental health charities welcomed the decision by the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, to order a review of the evidence of the links between psychosis and cannabis use. Some recent research from New Zealand found that smoking cannabis seriously increased the risk of developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Gerard Seenan
Saturday June 11, 2005
The Guardian

Investigators from an energy company looking into electricity theft have led the police to almost 50 cannabis-growing farms in British homes so far this year.
British Gas revealed yesterday that its energy investigators had helped the police to seize £8.5m worth of cannabis plants in the first five months of the year, after they monitored homes where they suspected that the electricity meter was being by-passed.

In an unusual spin-off from their inquiries, the teams from British Gas are now being issued with guidelines to help them seek out houses that are being used as cannabis farms. They then pass their information on to police forces across the country.

British Gas revealed that criminals are drawing attention to their cannabis growing operations by stealing large quantities of electricity to power the lights that help to grow their plants on an industrial scale.

So far this year the company has uncovered 47 such locations. It estimates that to power even a small cannabis growing operation in a home would require at least £3,000 worth of electricity a year, 10 times the average domestic bill.

The domestic cannabis farms uncovered range from operations involving a hundred or so plants to those with 600 or more. In some cases every room in the house, except the bathroom and a small area of the kitchen, is turned over to cannabis production.

An investigator for the company said there were signs which alerted him to cannabis production before the door to a house was even opened.

"The house will look run down and the curtains in every room are almost always closed," said the investigator. "They black the windows out, not just because they don't want people to see what they are doing, but to keep the temperature up."

He said domestic cannabis farms were being uncovered everywhere, from suburban housing estates and city flats to rural locations. "I would say we are coming across more and more of them in premises," he added.

Smell is another big giveaway. "You can often smell it outside the house. They ventilate the excess hot air through 12 inch covings and, on a blustery day, the strong smell disappears into the stratosphere. But on a still day the smell lingers and there is a strong odour of cannabis outside.

"It's nothing though to what it's like inside, where the smell would knock you out," he added.

"It can also be extremely dangerous, in some cases you find things like nails rammed into meter boxes and virtually the whole house is live."

Sarah Boseley, health editor
Saturday June 11, 2005
The Guardian

A cannabis-based medicine which had excited the hopes of many multiple sclerosis patients has been refused a licence.
Many people with the devastating disease have used cannabis illicitly to relieve the symptoms, such as spasticity and nerve pain, so there had been great expectations of the medicine, produced as a nasal spray called Sativex, which had been undergoing trials for several years.

But the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority announced that the licence application to treat spasticity filed by GW Pharmaceuticals, which designed and manufactured the drug, had been turned down on appeal. The MHRA said there was not enough proof that the drug worked.

"We acknowledge that this decision may cause disappointment to MS patients. However, there was insufficient evidence to show that the risk-benefit relationship was favourable," said Kent Woods, the authority's chief executive.

Patient groups were dismayed and the company's chairman, Geoffrey Guy, said he was "very, very frustrated". He said further trials were under way to try to obtain the data that would convince the regulator to grant a licence.

The MHRA is satisfied that the drug is safe and of good quality - but it has fallen at the third hurdle, efficacy.

Dr Guy said his company had won the battle to have patients' reports of their improvement considered, rather than an assessment of how much better they were on a disputed clinical scale. But another trial must now be run to obtain data from larger numbers of patients.

Mike O'Donovan, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said: "This news will be greeted with dismay by many of the 85,000 people in the UK who have MS and suffer from distressing symptoms, including spasticity and pain. How long must they wait? When the society spoke at the Medicines Commission hearing we stressed that the choice of available treatments was limited, and many people did not find them effective. It was emphasised that measurements to assess new treatments for a fluctuating condition like MS do not always detect significant benefits patients feel.

"We believe there is convincing evidence that cannabis-derived drugs can significantly improve their quality of life."

Christine Jones, chief executive of the MS Trust, agreed. "It is extremely frustrating that the prospect of a licensed cannabis-derived medicine is still no closer," she said.

"Unfortunately neither the Medicines Commission nor the MHRA appears to be willing to take account of the very positive and statistically significant feedback from people with MS, who report relief from spasticity."

Sativex has already been given a licence for nerve pain relief in Canada, although this was conditional on more trials being done. Dr Guy said the company had a lot of evidence that the drug was effective in pain relief - but was told to apply for a licence for spasticity by the MHRA, only to be told that the efficacy data was not sufficient.

He said the drug was very helpful to some people in the trials. "The investigators see some patients' lives being totally changed beyond recognition," he said. "There are no other medicines that treat these patients. All our work was done in patients for whom all other treatment possibilities had been exhausted."

There are 400 patients in the UK still taking Sativex because they were in the trials. Other patients may seek to get it from Canada, he said, but they will need a prescription from a doctor who believes the drug can help, approval from the MHRA, and an import licence from the Home Office, because cannabis is a schedule 1 drug.

Dr Guy said he would now push for cannabis to be rescheduled, because therewas proof that it had a medical use, both from Canada and from the UK trials. Schedule 1 drugs are defined as having no therapeutic value.

The Newcastle researchers said anecdotal reports from people with mental illnesses suggested cannabis could alleviate symptoms. But they warned smoking the drug had been shown to cause long-term damage to mental health, and to increase the risk of mental illness in those who were already genetically susceptible.

Scientists have been trying to find ways of harnessing the beneficial aspects of the drug without exposing people to the harmful ones. The Newcastle team reviewed research carried out into the properties of cannabis.

They found evidence that two chemicals in cannabis could aid people with mental illness; THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol). THC helps give the 'high' associated with cannabis use, while CBD has been found to have calming properties. Combined, they could help people with bi-polar disorder avoid the manic highs and depressed lows of their condition.

The Newcastle team say trials should now be carried out to see if the combination of chemicals does help people. They are hoping to use a mouth spray created by GW Pharmaceuticals containing THC and CBD, which has been licensed for use for pain relief in Canada, once it is licensed in the UK.

The company is already involved in research looking at whether cannabinoids can relive pain symptoms for people with disease such as multiple sclerosis.

Heather Ashton, professor of clinical psychopharmacology, who led the study, told the BBC News website: "If you use this mixture in the right dose and the right proportions, you might very well be able to help people with bipolar disorder, whatever way they are veering.

"We think it might be useful to patients to try, as an add-on not as a single drug, a known mixture of certain cannabinoids." She added: "People who take cannabis for relief of these symptoms do not need the heavy doses that recreational users take." But Professor Ashton stressed: "We all agree that smoking cannabis, especially when young, in large quantities is associated with mental illness. "That is quite different from using it medicinally."

Jane Harris, campaigns officer at the mental health charity Rethink said: "Cannabinoids are an exciting new area for medical research, but it is important to recognise that there are over 60 active ingredients in cannabis - the two mentioned in this study may help in the treatment of bipolar disorder when taken in controlled doses. "But for most people with severe mental illness, raw cannabis remains a risky substance."All medical research needs to be checked before it would make a difference to the hundreds of thousands of people living with severe mental illness in the UK."

In January this year, the government announced a review of all academic and clinical studies linking cannabis use to mental health problems.

Matthew Taylor
Monday May 30, 2005
The Guardian

The government is proposing tougher controls on a horse tranquilliser, amid growing evidence that the powerful anaesthetic ketamine is becoming the preferred drug for a new generation of clubbers.
Although no official figures are kept for ketamine's "recreational" use, recent studies suggest there has been a fourfold increase in the numbers using it and customs officials report an "emerging trend" of seizures at ports around the country.

Nick Agha, a club promoter who puts on dance music nights at venues across the UK said: "This is becoming the next in-thing. I first noticed it in Ibiza last year. Lots and lots of people were doing it."

Since then, he said, its popularity has spread to clubs across the UK. "It seems to fit in with the slow dubby music that is popular at the moment. At a lot of venues it has overtaken ecstasy in terms of the number of people doing it."
Ketamine is not a controlled substance, but can only be obtained by prescription. In small amounts users say the powerful anaesthetic used in human and horse surgery induces feelings of euphoria and mild hallucinations.

But drug charities warn that it is very "dose-specific" and taking too much can lead to sickness and blackouts.

Jamie, 32, from London, who is a regular weekend user, said: "The right amount is really enjoyable. It feels like you are floating out of your body, but if you see someone else who has taken ket they are usually staggering around... I suppose it's a bit like having all your arms and legs pulled off and put back on the wrong way round."

He said that in recent months ketamine had become "the drug of choice" for a lot of clubbers. "It has been around on the gay scene for quite a while but now it is everywhere. People often combine it with ecstasy or cocaine or use it at after-club parties."

It is not illegal to possess ketamine but a paper published by the Home Office states that the government is proposing a change in the law following "evidence to suggest that ketamine is increasingly being used by clubbers on the dance scene".

That view is supported by a recent survey for the leading dance magazine Mixmag, which shows that among its readers there has been a four-fold increase in those taking ketamine since 2000.

"In 2004 20% of our readers had taken it in the last month, the highest ever in the survey's history," said Nick Stevenson, news editor at Mixmag. "Now it's become more widespread, trying ketamine isn't seen as such a risk."

But many clubbers do not enjoy the experience. One study cited by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs found that 87% of those who had used it said they would not try it again. "It was like being picked up and thrown across the room," one 30-year-old financial adviser told the Guardian. "When it had worn off a bit I felt like I'd been beaten up."

Ketamine first appeared on the dance scene in the early 1990s when it was often passed off as ecstasy. Observers say its recent popularity is due in part to its perceived purity in relation to cocaine or ecstasy.

The charity Drugscope says it is believed to be particularly popular with students because it is relatively cheap, costing around £20-30 a gram, widely available, and legal to possess.

There are concerns it is even being used by some pupils.

Earlier this year a Wiltshire teacher said it was difficult to teach some teenagers at the beginning of the week because they were lethargic after taking ketamine at the weekend.

Petra Maxwell from Drugscope said there was little research into ketamine's long-term effects, although some studies suggest users can suffer from flashbacks and memory loss. "It is very dose-specific which can lead to problems for people who don't realise how much they are taking," she said.

She warned it could be particularly dangerous if used with depressant drugs such as alcohol, barbiturates, heroin or tranquillisers.

"It can shut down the body to such an effect that vital organs stop functioning," she said.

The Home Office is due to complete its consultation on changing ketamine's legal status at the end of this month.

Tony Thompson, crime correspondent
Sunday May 29, 2005
The Observer

An explosion in the amount of cannabis grown in people's homes has alarmed senior police officers, with some forces reporting a sixfold increase in seizures. Home-grown cannabis now accounts for more than half of all consumption in the UK.
While cultivating cannabis is illegal, it is not against the law to buy seeds and growing equipment and business is booming. 'There's no doubt that the market for home-grown has completely exploded,' says Mark Evans, director of internet-based retailer everyonedoesit.com.

'We're selling at least 200 packets of seeds each week. Some of it is down to the reclassification - there's a lot of confusion out there, and some people think it's now legal. The other factor is the increased availability of hydroponic equipment which enables you to grow plants indoors.'

Small-scale kits cost about £350, while a packet of 10 'mid-range' seeds is around £65. A typical user would expect to recoup this with the first crop. The number of outlets selling seeds and paraphernalia has gone from 50, five years ago, to more than 2,000.

In the past month officers from the Metropolitan Police seized more than 10,000 cannabis plants. Figures to be released next month are expected to show that the total amount of herbal cannabis seized in the past year - which includes home-grown plants - has nearly doubled to 950,000 kilos.

Forces around the country have noticed a similar trend. Police in Northern Ireland seized more than 1,200 cannabis plants in the past year compared with 202 the year before. In Scotland the Tayside force's seizure rate has gone up sixfold. The independent drug advice group Drugscope says the proportion of home-grown cannabis being consumed now accounts for half the total market.

The dramatic increase comes as the government contemplates a U-turn on the reclassification of cannabis, which was scaled back from class B to class C last year. The Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs is debating whether cannabis containing high levels of the active ingredient THC should attract higher penalties. Domestic plants often have a significantly higher content.

Regular users are sceptical of the review. 'The main reason people grow their own cannabis is that they want to know what they are smoking and because they want to avoid associating with criminals,' says Howard Green, who grows the drug for his own use, passing on the surplus to those who use it to alleviate the symptoms of MS and other conditions.

'It's not always about having the strongest product available. Sometimes you feel like a pint of beer and sometimes you want a glass of brandy. A change in the law will make no difference. If people want to take drugs, they don't care what class they are.'

While much of the increase in seizures is due to the arrest of people growing a small number of plants for personal use, there has also been an explosion in the number of large criminal enterprises.

'We're not talking about a few hippies growing a bit of pot,' says Detective Inspector Dave McKelvey, who led raids on several London cannabis 'farms' this month. 'These are organised criminals prepared to invest money in cultivation on a commercial scale for big profits.'

The raids uncovered 10 houses converted into cannabis factories, each containing up to 2,000 plants. Sophisticated lighting and watering systems meant a new crop could be produced every eight weeks. Gangs will invest up to £50,000 per property to establish a growing operation. Increased competition has also raised the spectre of gangland violence.

In January the body of a Vietnamese national, Khang Tho Nguyen, was discovered in a house in Alperton, north London. The 41-year-old had been stabbed in the neck. The entire upstairs of the rented property where his body was found had been adapted to grow large numbers of cannabis plants. His killers remain at large.

Police have vowed to continue the crackdown on growers, but in future those who are caught may face more lenient sentences. Last week the Court of Appeal halved the sentence of 33-year-old cannabis user Matthew Herridge from 12 months to six months. Herridge, who was caught with 52 plants, successfully argued that the entire crop was for his own personal use and that he was not a dealer.

School Truants 'More Likely to Use Drugs'

Thu 26 May 2005
scotsman

Children who truant from school are more likely to use drugs than people from other vulnerable groups, government research said today. Larger numbers of truants or adults who skipped school in their youth had used drugs than serious offenders, persistent criminals, the homeless or people who had spent time in care, a Home Office study found. Truants were even more likely to have used hard drugs than people who had been excluded from school.

It came as separate Home Office research showed cocaine is still rocketing in popularity, with 16% growth year-on-year and a staggering 295% rise since 1996. Research showed 43% of truants admitted using an illegal drug in the previous 12 months.

In comparison, 36% of serious or persistent offenders, 32% of excludees and 23% of those in care or who were homeless admitted drug abuse. The survey showed 16% of truants admitted use of Class A substances such as heroin, crack and cocaine, compared with just 5% of those who had been in care or homeless.

Cannabis had been used by 35% of truants – more than in any of the other vulnerable group categories.

Overall, those in vulnerable groups were more likely to use drugs than the rest of the population and the likelihood increased if they were in more than one vulnerable group – for example, if they were both homeless and a persistent offender – the survey found.

Separate Home Office research found use among 16 to 24-year-olds in England and Wales had fallen significantly since 1998, while use of Class A substances by the same age group remained stable. Across the population as a whole, drug use remained largely stable with 36% of 16– to 59-year-olds admitting using one or more illicit substances in their lifetime.

Use of cocaine continues to grow, the study based on British Crime Survey results said. In 2003-04, 2.4% of those surveyed said they had taken cocaine, compared with 2.1% the previous year, a 16% increase year-on-year and a massive 295% increase on the 1996 figure. Use of hallucinogens and amphetamines fell by 34% and 52% respectively between 1996 and 2003-04, it said.

More than 11 million people in the 16 to 59 age group in England and Wales have used drugs at some point, it estimated, including four million who have used hard drugs and one million of which used them in the previous year.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: “Hard drug use has gone up by almost a third since Labour came to power – there are now more than a million hard drug users in Britain. “Even more alarming is the fact that the number of people regularly using hard drugs has gone up by two thirds. “More people are taking more drugs more of the time.” He added: “The Government haven’t lost the war on drugs – in fact they haven’t even begun to fight it. “They need to get a grip on Britain’s borders to cut down on smuggling, introduce tougher penalties for drug dealers and create more rehab places for criminals hooked on drugs.”

Marcus Roberts of drugs charity DrugScope said: “Anyone following the media or listening to some MPs recently would have thought that drug use is going through the roof, but as these latest figures prove, the facts reveal a very different story.

“Of course the increase in Class A drug use is worrying and we can’t afford to be complacent about the continued popularity of cocaine, but its time to focus on what is really happening with drugs in this country.”

Working classes turned on to hard drugs by cheap cocaine

May 27, 2005 times


A HUGE increase in cocaine use was cited yesterday for the number of people on hard drugs in England and Wales rising to a record one million.

More than half a million people are now using Class A drugs every month and the number of young people using cocaine has more than doubled since 1998. Cocaine use has quadrupled since 1996 and the surge is being blamed on significant increases among people over 24, a Home Office survey said.

The study found that 755,000 people took cocaine in 2003-04, 16 per cent more than the previous year and a 295 per cent increase on the figure in 1996. Drug charities said the rise was because of a flood of cheap cocaine on the market.

The charity Drugscope said that the typical price per gram had fallen from £70 to £40 over a decade. “The increase in Class A drug use is worrying and we cannot afford to be complacent about the continued popularity of cocaine,” a statement from the charity said. The drug was previously the preserve of high-earning showbusiness personalities, but is now being used by young professionals as a recreational drug.

The study found, however, that cocaine users were more likely to be semi-skilled or skilled manual workers than members of the professional classes. The results of the British Crime Survey found that 3.85 million people aged 16 to 59 had used an illegal drug in the past year.

The survey interviewed 26,000 people aged 16 to 59 throughout England and Wales. It is estimated that 11 million people in the same age range have tried a drug in their lifetime. The most common age at which 16 to 24-year-olds said that they started taking drugs is 16.

Almost a quarter of 16 to 24- year-olds admitted using Class A drugs more than once a month and 46 per cent said that they used any illegal drug as frequently. Overall hard drug use has risen by one third since 1996, bad news for the Government, whose policy is targeted at the use of Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine because they cause the most damage.

Cannabis remains the drug most likely to be used and almost one quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds had used it in the past year. The survey found that cannabis use among 16 to 59-year-olds had remained largely stable since 1998 and fell between 2002-03 and 2003-04. The percentage of 16 to 24-year-olds using cannabis has fallen. London had the highest rate of overall drug use and hard drug use in particular. The lowest level of hard drug use was in the East and West Midlands. Highest drug use was found in areas where affluent urbanites lived or in metropolitan areas populated by prosperous professionals.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that the figures showed that the Government’s drugs policy had failed.

Paul Goggins, the Drugs Minister, said that the strategy was delivering differences in communities in England and Wales. He said that record levels of drugs had been seized and that 54 per cent more drug users were in treatment than in 1998. He said: “We are well on track to reach our target of directing 1,000 drug-misusing offenders a week into treatment by 2008. Treatment works, and it is no coincidence that as drug treatment programmes have expanded, drug-related crimes such as theft and burglary recorded by the police have fallen significantly.

“Over the next year we will be rolling out tough new powers from the Drugs Act to enable the police and courts to put more drug dealers behind bars and get more drug misusing offenders into treatment.”

Trail of electronic data from US websites leads to convictions for Britons buying psychedelic drugs on net

David McCandless
Thursday May 26, 2005
The Guardian

Police have arrested and prosecuted more than 22 British customers of websites selling class A designer drugs online after a trail of electronic evidence from busted websites in the US led police to addresses across the UK.
The psychedelics drugs, known euphemistically as "research chemicals", have been sold for several years openly on the internet from websites based in the US. The US drug enforcement administration shut down the sites and arrested the owners last year after two deaths, and several cases of people needing hospital treatment in the US, were linked to the use of chemicals bought online.

Customer records and credit-card details extracted from seized computers were passed on to the national crime squad in the UK.
Once investigators had verified the intelligence, details were sent out to police forces. In a countrywide action, named Operation Ismene, the police carried out dawn raids in 14 counties, including Avon and Somerset, Greater Manchester, and Leicestershire. Court cases this month saw several people given fines or community service.

A variety of synthetic drugs were confiscated in the raids, including 2C-I, a new psychedelic drug growing in popularity on the UK dance scene and described as "the new ecstasy".

Frequently "research chemicals" have euphoric and visual effects similar to that caused by mescaline, ecstasy (also known as MDMA) and LSD. The majority do not have street names and are known only by their abbreviated lab names, such as 5-Meo-DMT, 2-CT-2, and AMT. Most are too powerful psychedelically to catch on with users or dealers, and have only been available via the internet.

The burgeoning online trade in these chemicals was first revealed in the Guardian last year. The trade has flourished in the past five years as law enforcement has struggled to keep ahead of fast-moving technology. Online outfits have been able to create a worldwide customer base for designer drugs by subverting the infrastructure laid down by legitimate e-commerce such as international couriers and online credit-card systems.

At the same time, chemists working "underground" routinely synthesise new drugs to slip through the gaps in international drugs legislation.

The trade only came to the broad attention of US law enforcers after a death in Louisiana last year. In March 2004, James Downs, 22, died after an accidental overdose of powdered 2-CT-21 he ordered online. Police investigating his death traced his purchases to a Las Vegas "research chemicals" website (americanchemicalsupply.com), one of several professional operations importing such chemicals from labs in China and India. The websites were shutdown in a US-wide sting in July 2004 known as Operation Web Tryp.

Court documents have revealed the extent, sophistication and success of these e-businesses. Each website had thousands of customers in the US and Europe. The public was able to order a selection of drugs with "one-click" systems of payment via credit card or Paypal. Ordered drugs were delivered next day by Fedex and other carriers.

Some sites traded openly while others were more clandestine. All the websites, including those mentioned here, have been closed down now.

RacResearch.com, based in New York, ran a slick modern site offering broad selections of up to 20 drugs with free sample packs for first-time customers. Adverts for the site appeared on Google. Another site - www.pondman.nu - appeared to be selling fish and pond supplies but was a sophisticated e-commerce drug operation. Police estimate some sites were making around $20,000 (about £11,000) a week.

So-called research chemicals are not officially listed as controlled substances under US drugs laws. However, the website operators were prosecuted under a law that prohibits the possession and supply of chemicals "substantially similar" to controlled drugs. All the operators face likely life sentences. Several have been charged additionally with causing death or serious injury.

Last week the operator of pondman.nu - 52-year-old David Linder - was found guilty on 27 charges, including drug conspiracy and money laundering. He was sentenced to a total of 410 years in prison. He was also ordered to pay back $700,000 (£389,000) in profits from the website. The severity of his sentence was related in part to the death of an 18-year-old man in New York who overdosed on the drug alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT) purchased from Linder's site.

Deaths caused by research chemicals, however, appear to be isolated tragedies. Like ecstasy, most of the chemicals seem to be physically harmless at low or average doses. The underground websites documenting their use advise extreme caution. Despite glowing reports of "wow" type experiences, the site Erowid.org carries the disclaimer: "It is not reasonable to assume that these chemicals are in any way 'safe' to use recreationally."

Because the recommended dosages can vary by as little as a thousandths of a gram, a slight miscalculation can trigger an overdose. When smoked, just 2mg (a dose smaller than a grain of salt) of the potent chemical 5-MeO-DMT can cause a short-lived but powerful "trip". Heavy doses, or overdoses, have been known to trigger undesirable physical and psychological symptoms including profound anxiety, "bad trips", overheating of the body, and even death.

Thanks to the psychedelic intensity of these drugs, few of the chemicals have made it as street or club drugs. Their use is generally championed by "psychonauts", drug hobbyists, usually young men, who experiment alone or in small groups, exchanging information online.

Many of those arrested in the UK seem to have fallen into this category. Among those arrested have been students, primary-school workers and people running lifestyle drugs outfits. They were not primarily career criminals or drug dealers. Although initially arrested on suspicion of intent to supply, many saw their charges altered to simple possession.

The national crime squad would not comment yesterday on whether there would be more arrests.

The UK has the strictest laws in the EU on designer drugs. The Misuse Of Drugs Act was amended in 2002 to include a "catch most" clause outlawing every drug, and possible future drug, from the LSD (tryptamine) and ecstasy (phenethylamine) chemical families. The amendment is a virtual cut-and-paste from the books of the respected American biochemist Alexander Shulgin, who obtained a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr Shulgin, a former research chemist at the Dow Chemical Company, re-discovered the recipe for MDMA in 1976 and published the recipes for more than 170 designer drugs of his own invention.

While research chemicals are still available from websites in China, India and Japan, the illicit online drugs trade has gone underground as law enforcers have become more skilled at tracking hi-tech crime. "A drug supply route between the US and the UK has been dismantled," said Jim Gamble, deputy director-general of the national crime squad. "Anyone considering purchasing drugs online should think again, the crime squad and other law enforcement agencies will track you down."

Laura Smith
Wednesday May 25, 2005
The Guardian

Anti-social behaviour orders are increasingly being used against prostitutes as a "quick fix" way of clearing women off the streets, campaigners warn.
Probation officers and those who work with prostitutes say the orders have effectively brought back jail sentences for offences such as loitering and soliciting, which have been non-imprisonable for more than 10 years. Breaching the orders, brought in six years ago, is a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in jail.

Cari Mitchell, from the English Collective of Prostitutes, said: "Asbos are being used as a quick way to solve deep problems without dealing with the core issues.
"In some cases it is inevitable that they will be broken, meaning that, in effect, Asbos have reintroduced prison for an offence which is not imprisonable."

A full picture of the scale of their use against prostitution is almost impossible to establish because the Home Office, and many of the police forces where the orders are most heavily used, does not break down its figures according to the types of behaviour for which the orders are served.

A review by the Home Office three years ago found that 5% of Asbos dealt with prostitution, though this figure only represented a "selection" of the case files examined.

Harry Fletcher, spokesman for the probation officers' union Napo, said: "What probation officers are reporting is that in the last six months or so, Asbos are increasingly being used in circumstances where they are wholly inappropriate.

"Some local authorities, in conjunction with police, are using them as a way of clearing the streets of people whose behaviour is undesirable, but not antisocial.

"The actual offence of prostitution is not imprisonable, but we are ending up with people facing up to five years in prison for it."

The consequences for the women involved can be disastrous, according to those who work with prostitutes.

Diane Martin is the manager of Trust, a community project supporting sex workers in south London, where the majority of women involved in prostitution do so to pay for drugs. Many are homeless and an increasing number have mental health problems.

Ms Martin said the orders often displaced women rather than addressing the reasons why they were working on the street. She knew of several women who had begun working in Lambeth after being issued with Asbos elsewhere. Another woman had been imprisoned three times after breaching the orders, resulting in her losing a rare place in a women-only hostel the Trust had negotiated for her.

"For some it may be considered effective if an individual is no longer seen in a particular location, but where is that woman? It is unlikely that the issuing of an Asbo has resulted in her drug use and lack of accommodation being instantly resolved," she said.

"We do not believe it is appropriate to use Asbos as a strategy to deter street sex work, and we feel it is ineffective and irresponsible to simply shove the problem to another area."

Ms Mitchell said she knew of prostitute women, frightened of being served an Asbo, who had begun working alone - and more often in back-streets to avoid detection.

"The main consequence for women working on the streets is that they take more risks to make money and are more at risk of violence," she said.

Mr Fletcher said he knew of one woman who was ordered not to carry condoms and banned from the area of the city where her health clinic was located.

"It's an absolute scandal," said Matt Foot, a solicitor who set up the campaigning group Asbo Concern. "We decided a long time ago that, as a civilised society, prostitutes should not go to prison."

Asbos were introduced under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. They can be served against anyone over the age of 10 for acting "in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household".

Government figures show that 42% of the orders are breached and 55% of those who do so receive a custodial sentence.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said Asbos were successful in reducing some forms of antisocial behaviour, but admitted they might not address prostitution effectively.

"Sometimes the behaviour of those in prostitution can be seriously antisocial," she said. "Communities deserve action to be taken to protect them from such behaviour."

Leader
Friday May 20, 2005
The Guardian

Tony Blair will be disappointed. Earlier this week he told the Commons that he was expecting an experts' report on whether he should restore cannabis to a category B drug, remaking possession an arrestable offence, within weeks. Yesterday the experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) set up a technical committee to re-examine the harmfulness of the drug, but it is not expected to report until December. The re-examination was prompted by two developments. First, research produced by two new studies suggesting regular use of cannabis may have more serious mental health consequences than previously thought. Second, the increase in the use of a stronger form of cannabis - "skunk" - prompting questions whether this more dangerous variety should carry higher penalties.

The two new research studies were sensibly referred by the home secretary to the ACMD in March to delay the debate about reclassification until after the election. It is only 16 months ago that the government followed the advice, set out in 2000 by the report from the independent inquiry into the drug laws, that cannabis should be downgraded from category B to the less harmful and non-arrestable category C. The inquiry team - which included senior medics, top pharmacologists and chief officers of police - set out to reclassify drugs by their harmfulness in the light of evidence that has emerged since the three categories were set 30 years previously. The members were aware that heavy use of cannabis could produce temporary acute psychosis for people predisposed to mental ill health, but concluded the drug was much less harmful than crack, heroin, ecstasy or LSD. What was unclear was whether cannabis only triggered psychotic attacks in someone who was already ill, or whether it could cause attacks in someone who was previously well. The two new reports suggest it might do the latter as well.
Clearly the ACMD is the best body to determine this issue. It should not be rushed, given the complex issues involved and the serious consequences of the decision. What the prime minister must not do - as this week he implied he might - is to upgrade cannabis no matter what the ACMD concludes. He needs to remember his pledge to pursue evidence-based policy-making. As for making "skunk" a more serious offence, this would be a nightmare to police. It is not just drugs that are harming young people, but the law, too, in the way it criminalises them for an activity which causes no harm to many millions of users.

Alan Travis Home affairs editor
Thursday May 19, 2005
The Guardian

Drug experts will begin debating today whether stronger "skunk" varieties of cannabis should carry higher penalties for possession.
The Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, which meets in London, has been asked by the home secretary, Charles Clarke, for its advice on varieties of cannabis containing high levels of THC, the active ingredient.

In his letter to the committee, Mr Clarke pointed it to these forms of the plant, known as skunk, which are often grown in nutrient-rich water.

"I am aware the Dutch government are taking a particular interest in very high strength strains and are considering whether cannabis above a certain strength should be a higher classification," the home secretary said.
The council is reviewing whether the recent relaxation of the penalties for cannabis possession should be reversed.

Tony Blair told the Commons on Tuesday that he hoped the experts would produce their report within weeks, but those hopes are likely to be dashed.

The council, which is chaired by a clinical pharmacologist, Sir Michael Rawlins, is expected to agree a timetable and terms of reference today for its review of the cannabis laws, which means that a final report is unlikely to be produced before December.

The review was announced just before the general election campaign got under way following fresh claims of mental health problems caused by regular cannabis use and by the growing use in Britain of skunk.

Mr Blair hinted strongly in the Commons that he could reverse the relaxation in the laws on cannabis: "If it advises us to change that decision, we will do so. If it does not, we will obviously have to consider that," he told MPs.

The drug experts are likely to set up a committee to examine evidence from a New Zealand study which claims that regular use of cannabis can increase the risk of mental health problems later in life for those with a family history of mental illness.

The council recommended the decision taken by the former home secretary, David Blunkett, to downgrade cannabis possession from class B to class C in January last year. In making that recommendation the experts took into account claims that regular cannabis smoking could exacerbate existing mental health problems but not the more recent academic evidence that it could trigger new problems.

The reclassification meant that most adults caught in possession face a police policy of "confiscate and warn," while those under 18 are arrested and taken to a police station and given a formal reprimand.

The proposal to introduce different penalties for different strengths of cannabis could cause practical problems for the police, who would have to distinguish between cannabis that they could arrest adults for possessing and weaker strains for which they could only issue an informal warning.

Martin Barnes, the chief executive of DrugScope, a drugs information charity, said: "We are seeing stronger cannabis generally but the bigger problem is that cannabis is being used regularly by a younger age group, rather than it being stronger than in the past."

Research in the US has reported that cannabis 10 times more potent than traditional strains has been appearing there. The average potency of cannabis consumed in Holland, where there has been an explosion in the homegrown market, has doubled, to about 16% THC. Research by the EU's drug agency last year suggested that the effective strength of cannabis consumed in Britain has remained unchanged at about 6% THC for 30 years.

The study acknowledged that there has been an unknown increase in home-grown cannabis, which can be two to three times more potent, but more than 70% of the British market was taken by imported Moroccan hashish.

Blunkett plans clamp on benefits for disabled

Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
Sunday May 15, 2005
The Observer

Drug addicts could be forced into rehab programmes or lose cash benefits under welfare reforms being drawn up by David Blunkett.
The move would form part of controversial plans to coax up to a million sick and disabled people off incapacity benefits (IB) and into work.

The new Work and Pensions Secretary, who is blind himself, insisted his plans should not be seen as a threat to the disabled but as 'liberating' their ambitions.

In his first newspaper interview since returning to Cabinet, Blunkett also hinted at moves to restrict new migrants' rights to benefits, and pledged to tackle a growing backlog of Child Support Agency (CSA) cases by encouraging divorcing couples to undergo mediation.

'I want to see this as a different sort of welfare state, where we are saying to people: we are on your side, what is it you feel we can do - and what responsibility are you prepared to take if we are prepared to help you?' he told The Observer.

The shake-up of incapacity benefit is expected to create a 'two-tier' system, with claimants receiving a basic £55, compared with more than £74 now. However, those who actively seek work - or are judged too sick to be expected to work - would get far more generous payments on top.

Blunkett said that he was struck by the number of addicts, whose habits prevented them working, making claims. Going into rehab could be made a condition for getting the higher rate.

'What's been raised with me is quite a lot of young people who have gone on IB are damaged by drugs. We need to look at the causes and how we can help within our massively expanded treatment programmes,' he said. 'It may be that coming off drugs is part of the agreement.'

A welfare reform bill to shake up housing and incapacity benefits will be a key plank of the Queen's Speech unveiled on Tuesday.

An immigration and asylum bill will focus on removing more rejected asylum seekers and tightening migration criteria. There will be a bill extending choice in education, including a shake-up of Ofsted inspections giving more weight to parents' complaints; and a hygiene and public health bill, introducing a ban on smoking in public places, plus bills on housing and pensions. Measures that failed during the last parliament, including ID cards, will be reintroduced.

For claimants who may have been on IB for decades, Blunkett will advocate part-time work or volunteering. But in other cases people needed to be 'persuaded' they were fit to work.

'Those who do not have a challenge actually often patronise those who do, by writing them off.'

Blunkett also wants to tackle resentment among taxpayers against welfare claimants. That may, he hints, include moves to ensure new entrants to the country 'earn' entitlement to welfare - just as workers from the new EU countries were barred from claiming benefits for a year.

Non-EU economic migrants are currently not entitled to benefits: EU workers can claim in limited circumstances, while refugees receive full entitlement. The issues will be considered in a review of immigration.

Somewhat awkwardly for a man who quit Cabinet amid a messy battle over access to his youngest son, Blunkett also now oversees the embattled CSA. He plans to speed up enforcement against non-paying fathers and seek 'imaginative ideas' on reducing the backlog of cases.'

Heavy cannabis users are 10 times more likely to be injured, or to injure others, in car accidents, researchers have found. The scientists from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, say their study is the first proof that there is a link between using cannabis and accidents. Previously, there was only laboratory research and post mortem evidence to suggest a connection.

UK experts said the Addiction study showed more education was needed. Doctors had believed there was a link between cannabis use and accidents for some time, but had been unable to prove a connection.

The New Zealand team surveyed 571 drivers of cars involved in crashes in which at least one occupant was hospitalised or killed and a control group of 588 drivers randomly selected from cars driving in Auckland.

They were asked if they had taken cannabis in the three hours prior to the crash or survey and were also asked about their use of cannabis over the previous 12 months.

It was found that habitual cannabis users were 9.5 times more likely to be involved in crashes, with 5.6% of people who crashed having taken the drug compared to 0.5% of the control group.

Their risk of an accident was increased whether or not they had used cannabis immediately before the accident.

However the researchers said more research was needed to understand how cannabis use was linked to risk-taking behaviour, and how other factors - such as the person also using alcoho - might affect.

The researchers, led by Dr Stephanie Blows, said: "The prevalence of self-reported recent cannabis use in the Auckland driving population was less than 1%, and those who did use marijuana prior to driving were highly likely to be habitual users."This suggests that interventions targeting high risk marijuana use groups may be more cost-effective than random roadside testing."

Professor Robert West, editor of Addiction, said: "People have been saying for some time that drugs increase your risk of an accident, but there was no good evidence to show that. "It shows public information campaigns would be a good idea."

Martin Barnes, chief executive of Drugscope, said: "Cannabis can impact on your perception and your responses." He added: "Obviously if you have been taking drugs you should really not be driving."

See Archive for earlier stories

Mr Buchan, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, revealed many criminals continue to offend by simply removing their tag.In his opening address to the ASPS conference in Peebles, attended by the Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson, he said there was an "urgent need" to recognise and address shortcomings in tagging.

He revealed that while he was police commander in North Lanarkshire, officers found the body of a tagged man.He said: "When we contacted the monitoring company, they informed us they were puzzled as to why he hadn't moved for seven days."Reliance was unavailable for comment.

Mr Buchan said he was concerned with "the growing evidence of shortcomings in the supervisory process".He added: "Too many of those afforded monitored release continue to re-offend. Some simply remove the monitoring device.
"Electronic monitoring has its place in sentencing policy, but only as part of a structured programme that includes direct supervision."

SNP Deputy Leader Nicola Sturgeon said Mr Buchan "should be listened to".She added: "Electronic monitoring does have a role to play in the criminal justice system but is not a catch-all solution.
"Those tagged have to be kept under supervision. Many commit further offences."

The Scottish Executive said supervision of criminals was a matter for the courts.A spokeswoman said tagging could be combined with other disposals such as probation orders which use direct supervision by agencies such as social work.She added: "It is for the courts to decide which disposal is appropriate."

Glasgow Tory MSP Bill Aitken described tagging as a soft option. He said: "Tagging certainly has its place but it is another weapon in the Executive's armoury for clearing prisons."Public safety must come first. People must not be liberated if they are likely to reoffend."The Executive must realise many offenders need to be in custody and tagging is another soft option."

ASPS welcomed the introduction of new laws to tackle anti-social behaviour.The conference heard anti-social behaviour contracts had been served on four people in Ruchazie in Glasgow, who had together clocked up 76 charges.Mr Buchan went on to support efforts to tackle sectarianism and described football matches as "a high-profile public stage for the mindless bigots who promote religious intolerance".He also called for a review of the police service as demands on frontline officers grow.

TIMESFILE:

•Tagging has been available to Scottish courts since May 2002.

•Offenders have to wear a transmitter which ensures they spend up to 12 hours a day in a specific place.

•It costs £13,456 to lock someone up for six months, compared with £4860 to impose a Restricted Liberty Order for a similar period.

•A total of 807 restriction of liberty orders were made in 2003/2004, compared with 524 the previous year.

•The incidence of RLOs was highest amongst 18 to 20-year-olds.

•More than half of all tagging orders were in place for three to six months, with one in 10 offenders receiving the maximum length of 12 months.

•New anti-social behaviour laws introduced in October extended tagging to 12 to 15-year-olds.

•A pilot scheme to tag suspects on bail rather than remand them in custody is under way in Glasgow.

Police are warning shopkeepers of the consequences of selling drug paraphernalia. The move follows the recent conviction of a Glasgow shopkeeper for selling equipment which police believe was going to be used to prepare drugs. Some £3,000 worth of stock was seized, including bongs, cannabis pipes and magazines about marijuana cultivation.

The Strathclyde force said it was the first conviction of its kind in Scotland, and possibly the UK.Officers said they were aware that other shopkeepers in the area were selling equipment which they wrongly thought was lawful.

Each of the force's divisional drugs awareness officers will now identify and visit shops within their own areas to offer guidance on the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The act makes it an offence to supply any product which may be used in the administration or preparation of a controlled drug. If the advice is not taken on board, the shopkeepers run the risk of being charged and having their stock seized.

Superintendent Alastair McKie, the force's drug co-ordinator, said: "I would urge all shopkeepers to think of the effects these products can have on our communities. "We are willing to offer advice and assistance regarding the sale of items which are of concern to us.

"In many instances those selling such equipment state that they didn't know that the equipment would be used to prepare controlled drugs. "If this is the case then the officers will give advice and the shopkeeper can stop selling the equipment.
"However, if the officer returns to find the products still on sale the items may be seized and the shopkeeper risks being charged."

Detective Sergeant Kenny Simpson, from the force's drug squad, said it was not just smoking implements that were being sold.
"Snorting equipment, clearly designed for the administration of powdered drugs like cocaine, is also on sale," he said.
"Some of the shopkeepers claim such equipment is being used for snuff and that the smoking implements can be used for herbal highs, but it would be naive of me to accept that sort of defence. "Some shopkeepers may also be under the delusion that what they are doing isn't really an offence as they see others doing it."

He added that the force's crackdown was in response to an increase in the amount of drug equipment now being sold. "Drugs are very much to the fore for young people," he said.
"There is no point in us taking the drug awareness information into schools when the children can walk down the high street and see this kind of paraphernalia being sold in all kinds of shops."

A Welsh assembly member who called for his colleagues to volunteer to try out a new drug detection machine has tested "positive" for cannabis himself. Swabs taken from Conservative AM William Graham's hands at the Welsh assembly building revealed traces of the drug, probably from a door handle. He had arranged for police to come in to demonstrate the hi-tech machine. Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart's hands were similarly cross-contaminated also bringing a positive test.

Mr Graham, a long time campaigner on substance abuse issues, said: "I can't think where I could have got it from". He had arranged with Gwent Police, who had recently bought the first Ion Track drug detection system in Wales at a cost of £40,000, to demonstrate it to assembly members in Cardiff Bay. The machine can detect traces of drugs or explosives several days after a person has come into contact with them, even if they have washed their hands.

A swab paper is wiped over a person's hands and then placed into the machine which then analyses it for drugs including cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and cannabis.The resulting reading indicates how many drugs are present in the sample and at what levels. It is so sensitive it can detect the equivalent in drugs of a grain of salt in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

A similar test of fellow AM Ms Hart showed that although she had not been using drugs, her hands had been cross contaminated with traces of the substance, from door handles, money or other public areas. "You could pick it up from anywhere couldn't you?" she said.

The machine is used by Gwent Police to test people queuing for a night club, and to detect traces of drugs in a house where the actual substances had already been removed. A spokesman for Gwent Police said: "It must be borne in mind that anyone taking the test can test positive as a result of cross contamination."

Other AMs lined up to have swabs of their hands tested by the machine with Jonathan Morgan and Owen Jon Thomas both coming up "clean" on the machine. Nick Bourne, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, also got a clear result.