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[Chris]

BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Pub-goers to be tested for drugs

Of course there's the old adage if you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to fear, but this is still a shocking invasion of privacy.

This could ruin people's lives without any due process or serious investigation. Imagine being on a work night out and being refused entry from a pub because this thing threw a yellow or red light, yet you might not do drugs at all just been near someone who does (friends smoking a joint at a party for example) and have some residue on your hands. Possibly an extreme example, but what's the comeback for this?

Very bad idea. Surely it would be better to train bouncers and door staff to recognise the signs that someone's out of their face and not let them in on that grounds rather than swabbing people on entry.

[The Kernel Loaf]

It is usually pretty fucking obvious when someone is pilled out of their face.

Still, a casual J before the pub could now get you arrested? I wonder what their grounds on this being a good idea is - I thought drinking caused 99% of problems at night in town.

[Jeanette]

You could still take something and not have it on your hands!

Do the police not have anything better to do with their time?! This is a pointless waste of resources.

[Frosty Jack]

"The Itemiser is already being used in pubs in England where concerns have been raised about the possibility of customers getting a positive reading simply by touching a surface where there are traces of drugs.
But a spokeswoman for the SCDEA said the device was able to tell the difference between this type of contamination and drug use."

The cops can barely cope with things as they are, they're not going to waste their time nicking someone just because they 'might have touched drugs'.
And this is not supposed to be looking for the ones who are off their faces, the bouncers should be spotting them anyway. They're after the dealers, who usually aren't. The dealers want to make sure they get in, so they'll be nice and respectable with good shoes. And 20 wraps in their pocket. Hey presto, half an hour later 20 people off their faces and already inside.
But you're right, anything that gives the door monkeys another excuse to exert their 'superiority' is a bad idea. They'll be loving it.

[Nefarious C]

Fuck that. That's bloody ridiculous.

What a waste of money and time. So is there meant to be an officer at every pub now?

[soundian]

This is ridiculous. Are they going to check everyone or just people they suspect have taken drugs or are dealers?
Unless they check smokers on the way back in it would be far too easy for someone to get slipped something outside and then waltz back in fully laden with drugs.
Can the machine really tell if you've taken cocaine or just been handed a tenner in your change that was used to snort cocaine half an hour ago? iirc, there's quite a high percentage of british notes that test positive for cocaine.
I also suspect that drug dealers will soon find a way of wiping the residue from their hands, most things that don't come off with soap and water can be removed with alcohol.

It's a waste of money that targets casual drug users rather than hardcore users and dealers.

[pogofish]

This strikes me as being like the Quadro Tracker all over again:

the Quadro QRS 250G Detector and the Psi-Tronics Super-Sensor Dowsing Rod

PERMANENT INJUNCTION AGAINST QUADRO TRACKER

[Teabags]

What a crock of shit. Someone could snort a line of coke in the toilets with a £10 note, buy a drink with it, someone else ends up with that tenner in their hands.

[Skull Commander]

I'v been ranting about this all morning. It's wrong on all levels.

[pogofish]

Originally Posted by soundian

Can the machine really tell if you've taken cocaine or just been handed a tenner in your change that was used to snort cocaine half an hour ago?

False positives are a major issue with these machines. Which are a fair bit more basic than the airport/explosive detectors they are likened to.

Anyone heard of which pubs or clubs might have this foisted on them yet? So we can boycott them.

Equally, if anyone is tested & suffers a false positive, or has prescribed medication questioned, I hope they would demand a print-out of the result, take proper legal advice & lodge a complaint with both the licencing board & their MP.

Is there any idea of how these machines stand under the DPA & how the results are handled - Presumably the testing will happen in the CCTV-covered areas of pubs or clubs & could easily be correlated with the footage?