Good or Bad Plan

[brokencross]

I think anything that can make thing difficult for dealers and rid society of illegal drugs is a good idea.

Will this work or will there be an increase in the sale of surgical rubber gloves. (Not sure if it shows whats in your system or just what you have been in contact with)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7702856.stm

I like the phrase "The test is voluntary, but customers will be refused entry if they do not take part."

[Torvaig]

Whilst my initial thought is that anything which may curb the violence, nuisance etc., of people under the influence of drugs (or drink) is welcome, I think we are getting very near the knuckle of curbing our freedom as well.

Surely if establishments employ well trained security staff, any trouble erupting from anyone whether under the influence of any substance or just a born nuisance should be dealt with accordingly without resorting to assuming everyone entering the premises is breaking the law.

I would like to see security staff well trained and supervised as some of them can be as thuggish as the patrons. It is a shame that decent, law-abiding people have to endure the consequences of lawbreakers and idiots.

[brokencross]

It is a shame that decent, law-abiding people have to endure the consequences of lawbreakers and idiots.

I agree with you there, and also about all our freedoms being eroded because of the actions of a few.

[Gizmo]

Unless this machine somehow can trace drugs in the bloodstream and not just contact trace evidence then it's a stupid waste of time, drug dealers/users will always find a way to beat the system.

[justine]

Its simply a matter of whether you condone the use of drugs, alcohol will never make a difference and no matter how many ways they try to figure out who is using, dealing it will never be accomplished.
Drugs have been around many many centuries in different forms and will always remain. If they spent the time and money on the likes of the NHS, Education, housing and the rest oof the problems we deal with every day because of lack of funding, instead of pouring hundreds of thousands each year into a system that will fail them every time in the combat of drugs we would be better off.

[TBH]

Another example of papering over the cracks rather than doing something constructive to combat the drug problem in this country.

[hotrod4]

Drug dealers are scum.
Scum should be shot or publicly flogged.
They are peddling death to people.
Line them up double tap to the head no more wasters simple really! :)

[Solus]

Huge risk of cross contamintation from door handles, money and almost any other item that someone else may have handled before the next person came into contact.

The same sort of situation arose in I think Saudi or Kuwait, where by some one was locked up after a similair test was carried out at an airport, can not remember the length of time they spent awaiting trial but it seemed that the person detained was a victim of cross contamination.

[wifie]

Have to agree that this looks like a total waste of time and money - both of which could be better spent!

[Tilter]

Why are people being checked for drugs in order to enter a place where the specific purpose is to sell people more drugs?

[JAWS]

It is just another step along a very dangerous path. The assumption is that you are automatically deemed to be guilty of being a user of illegal drugs until you prove otherwise.

Starting the ball rolling by claiming it is aimed at the feckless drunken youths who frequent town centres at weekends is a way of making it sound acceptable. Once that has come to be generally accepted what next? Checking people using the local supermarket before they can buy food? Well, if you don't submit to a check you will be refused entry.

Sound ridiculous? Well why not, what is the difference between my going out for a quiet drink in a town centre on a Saturday evening and my shopping at the local supermarket? If going for a quiet drink means you have to prove you are not a drugged up junkie then why not when you visit a shop or go to the cinema.

Laws which were recently introduced allegedly to catch terrorists and international criminals are now being used to keep surveillance by about half the councils in England, and I suspect many areas of Scotland as well, on such horrifically dangerous criminals as people who leave their bins out slightly too long on collection days or, worse still, put things in the “wrong” bin, or horror of horrors keep several months surveillance on a family they thought might have sent their child to a school in the wrong area.

How about a child taking a photograph of a small railway station for a school project being questioned and made to sign a form for being a suspected terrorist? Had it now been for an outcry he would have been recorded as such for a period of six years. Try getting quite a number of jobs with that turning up when checks are made.
But if you have done nothing wrong, etc.

The activities of such dangerous people have to be monitored for the general good of society, if they will behave like that who knows what they will do next, your very life could be in danger.

We are slowly but surely being led by the nose into accepting that the who, what, when and where about us is checked on and recorded at the slightest excuse and where everybody is taught to be suspicious and observant about everybody else.
That is certainly not the kind of society I would wish to live in but that is what is slowly happening.

[brokencross]

We are slowly but surely being led by the nose into accepting that the who, what, when and where about us is checked on and recorded at the slightest excuse and where everybody is taught to be suspicious and observant about everybody else.
That is certainly not the kind of society I would wish to live in but that is what is slowly happening.
In this era of where everyone appears to be guilty until proved innocent; my 21 year old daughter who is a white, blonde student was on her way through York station to York Uni.

She was stopped by the police on the station concourse who said he was stopping her under "the prevention of terrorism act". The poor girl was totally taken aback and actually frightened. He asked her name, address, height and various other details which he duly recorded. He then asked if he could search her bag, which he did, but she said all he gave it was a cursory glance as if he was going through the motions.

He then gave her a slip of paper to say she had been stopped and searched under "the prevention of terrorism act" but no further action was to be taken. There were other police around doing exactly the same thing to "random" people. It would appear my daughter carrying a bag (not a rucksack) and passing through a busy station is just cause to stop her whilst she is going about her lawful business.

Whatever happened to profiling and targeted stop and search OR does the PC brigade dictate that young blonde girls must be stopped to balance out the numbers and therefore not alienate ethnic minorities.

[Bazeye]

Totally agree with Jaws. How will that stop people selling/taking drugs?
Answer... It wont. the same way enforcing speed limits doesnt stop folk from speeding or whatever.Whatever laws are made,if folk are going to ignore them they will ....humans are like that. Always have been always will be. Sad but true.

[Tilter]

my 21 year old daughter who is a white, blonde student was on her way through York station to York Uni.

She was stopped by the police on the station concourse who said he was stopping her under "the prevention of terrorism act".

Brokencross, I'm sorry your daughter was apprehended, but I for one am glad the police aren't being racist for once in their tiny lives. Who's to say a terrorist may not be white and blonde?

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

I've always been in the sense if ye want to take drugs ye will.I have an addiction to nicotine.So I am a drug addict,cos I can't live without nicotine.I could take substitutes,but I cannae.Because if I wanted to give up fags it wid be through will power.Ma will power has tried five times and failed.Do I really want to give up nicotine?Naw.