Police To Look Up Clubbers Noses

[Julnar]

Police in Cumbria have been issued with torches using ultra violet light that can detect cocaine use on the mouths and noses of clubbers in a bid to stamp out drugs use in clubs and pubs. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/809 8787.stm Fair use of resources or overly intrusive?
Pun intended, of course!

[VHG]

>in a bid to stamp out drugs use in clubs and pubs.

I am sorry, but how does this stamp out drug use in clubs?

If they find it up someone nose what do they do?

Can they arrest them just as a user?

If they throw them out of the club they can just come back next week.

I am against illegal drug use and would love to see it stamped down on, but go after the pushers and give them 20 years in prison.

Finding it up someones nose is not going to solve the problem.

[paraffin]

To be fair, the article did not mention anything about stamping out drugs use, the closest reference to that was the Officer quoted who hoped it would help to act as a deterrent.

And it's all too easy for people to call for the dealers to be brought to book: don't they think that the Police wish that too? But saying it and achieving it are miles apart because the dealers and suppliers are extremely difficult to locate, whereas it's a darned sight easier to find users to prosecute.

Talk about getting up your nose???

[LeMarchand]

I imagine that there may be a few punters grateful that the "cocaine" they bought turned out to be a mixture of household chemicals...

[anotheoldgit]

Drugs in beautiful Cumbria, the home of Wordsworth?

(1991 pop. 486,900), 2,635 sq mi (6,826 sq km)

I would have thought these torches would have been put to better use in some of the Inner Cities?

[socket2008]

Need to check the arms too, for any sign of needle activity. A rectum examination wouldn't go amiss either.