Thursday, June 16, 2005
Testing positive
It must have seemed such an easy way to get a bit of publicity, get Gwent Police to bring their latest weapon in the fight against drugs, the Ion Track Trace Detector Machine, into the Assembly and persuade AMs to line up to be tested in front of the cameras. Unfortunately, these stunts can often backfire.
Both Conservative AM, William Graham, who arranged the demonstration, and Assembly Social Justice Minister, Edwina Hart, tested positive for drugs. By the time the news filtered into the chamber the national media were making enquiries and some AMs were having difficulty keeping a straight face.
It has to be said that both Edwina and William are vehemently anti-drugs and would not go within ten feet of a banned substance, so how this positive result was reached left many people bemused. The official explanation is that almost everybody in Wales will have hard drugs on their hands at some point. The problem has reached the point that bank notes, taps and door handles in pubs, nightclubs and even the offices of Wales have traces of class A narcotics.
This then raises other questions. In particular, if the machine is going to find drugs on the hands and clothes of perfectly innocent people then what is the point of buying it? The Police argue that it is a matter of interpretation but then that brings the issue back to intuition and you cannot spend thousands of pounds on a machine to get that quality.
What William Graham actually demonstrated was that the Police have effectively wasted their money on a useless piece of junk. It cannot produce evidence that is admissable in court nor can it distinguish between somebody who has handled a contaminated five pound note and a persistent drug user. Still the press loved it!
Both Conservative AM, William Graham, who arranged the demonstration, and Assembly Social Justice Minister, Edwina Hart, tested positive for drugs. By the time the news filtered into the chamber the national media were making enquiries and some AMs were having difficulty keeping a straight face.
It has to be said that both Edwina and William are vehemently anti-drugs and would not go within ten feet of a banned substance, so how this positive result was reached left many people bemused. The official explanation is that almost everybody in Wales will have hard drugs on their hands at some point. The problem has reached the point that bank notes, taps and door handles in pubs, nightclubs and even the offices of Wales have traces of class A narcotics.
This then raises other questions. In particular, if the machine is going to find drugs on the hands and clothes of perfectly innocent people then what is the point of buying it? The Police argue that it is a matter of interpretation but then that brings the issue back to intuition and you cannot spend thousands of pounds on a machine to get that quality.
What William Graham actually demonstrated was that the Police have effectively wasted their money on a useless piece of junk. It cannot produce evidence that is admissable in court nor can it distinguish between somebody who has handled a contaminated five pound note and a persistent drug user. Still the press loved it!
Comments:
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out of interest - was there any follow up investigation by the police?
were the two assembly members arrested and questioned? and if not why not?
im sure the night clubbers in newport where this is to be used wont get off so easily!
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were the two assembly members arrested and questioned? and if not why not?
im sure the night clubbers in newport where this is to be used wont get off so easily!
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