random drug tests

[Misdemeanor]

THOUSANDS of people at pop festivals this summer could be subjected to a computerised drug test by police. Fans queueing to see Coldplay, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters at one festival will be asked to provide swab samples from their hands, writes Maurice Chittenden.

The samples will be inserted into a drug detection machine which is about the size of a laptop computer and costs £40,000. The machine will flash green, amber or red to show whether any drugs residue has been detected.

It is a voluntary test but anyone refusing to take part could be searched by officers. Anti-drug law campaigners say the move is a retrograde step when cannabis is about to be reclassified from a class B to a class C drug.

Police plan to use the machine for the first time when the three bands play at the V2003 festival at Weston Park, Staffordshire, in August.

Officers tried out the computer at a Stafford nightclub last month. More than 190 people were tested as they queued to go in. Six tested positive, but no drugs were found on them.

The human rights group Liberty said: "Police cannot force anyone to take a random drug test. Yet if people refuse, officers could view this as suspicious and then decide to search them anyway."

Not all police forces are convinced of the effectiveness of the random tests. Avon and Somerset police will not be using such drug testing at the three-day Glastonbury Festival, Britain’s biggest annual pop event, later this month. They intend to target drug dealers rather than users.

>>Taken from the sunday times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly...-698889,00.html (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2-523-698889,00.html)

[dj raw]

blimey o reilly! that's a bit harsh...

[vice]

i would refuse the test and give my drugs to a female to put down their bra or something :)

[Ov3RKiLL]

Originally posted by Bekit@Jun 3 2003, 07:04 PM
i would refuse the test and give my drugs to a female to put down their bra or something :)
not with a pig up in your face you dont <_<


good idea from the pigs point of view... bad from ours :angry:

[Blerg]

thats gonna prove great fun when people are not on them but were the day before or something like that. especially people who take cannabis regually (not saying anyone here does, just speculating the possibilities)

but couldnt you just take the drugs after the test? and although its random, didnt that say at the door? i mean if they could be botherd to go roun the camp sites (say a festival for instance) and notice the odd bongs, blim, baccy, beans, bongs and blow (oohhh look how much starts with B (*takes piss out of self :rolleyes: :blink: ) lieing aboot more or less everywhere.

but im surprised something like this didnt come sooner but i am glad its a swab from a hand thing not a stab you thing :ph34r:

[Misdemeanor]

i thinlk the real problem is this - ppl who smoke who get stopped because theyve been skinning up (all day/everyday whatever) and then get caught with other substances.

Well all this will do is provide so-called "evidence" that cannabis leads to other drugs... as opposed to revealing that ppl who buy drugs in dodgy bags get away it cos they never touch the stuff till they inside the venue.

:(

everyone knows the gateway drug to other drugs is already being fucked. And alcohol is something most ppl cain from their early teens! (er. well i did anyway)