A CAMPAIGN against smoking which could see nicotine patches being made available on the NHS is being launched this week. A ban on tobacco advertising on hoardings is also expected to be brought forward by one year to next year in Health Secretary Frank Dobson's White Paper. Tobacco sponsorship of clothing is also likely to be outlawed as part of an attempt to stop cigarette makers recruiting young smokers. On Thursday, Mr Dobson is expected to tell MPs that research shows that tobacco firms need to recruit 120,000 young smokers a year to replace those dying. The proposal to make nicotine patches - which cost about UKP15 a set - available on prescription is part of a bid to wean poorer people off cigarettes. Health visitors and midwives will be trained to advise mothers on how to quit. - --- Checked-by: Mike Gogulski [end]
SIR - You report that a company executive who bought ecstasy pills to celebrate his 45th birthday with his wife and friends was fined by Judge Davies at Horseferry Road court [Executive, 45 had ecstasy for his birthday, 2 December 1998]. The judge said his dabbling in a drug "that is killing teenagers" was a poor example to others. Indeed, ecstasy use is related to several deaths per year in the UK. By comparison, alcohol causes some 30,000 deaths every year in the UK, but it is easy to imagine the judge proposing a toast with his colleagues after the sentence was passed and yet another fine example was set. [continues 78 words]
THE Foreign Office has rejected a request by the parents of a convicted British drug smuggler to support a plea to the King of Thailand for a reduction in her 25-year jail sentence. Stan Gregory, a retired engineer, and his wife, Doreen, appealed to the Government to ask for the early release of their daughter, Sandra, who was convicted of trying to smuggle heroin from Thailand. Gregory, 33, a teacher, was jailed by a court in Bangkok in 1996 but she was allowed to return to Britain last year to serve her sentence. [continues 192 words]
LAWYERS from at least six law firms are being investigated for alleged money laundering on behalf of drug traffickers and other organised criminals. Law enforcement agencies including several police forces are investigating the handling of profits from drugs, gun-running and violent gang activities. News of the investigations came in an interview in The Laywer magazine with Det Chief Insp Simon Goddard, head of the organised and economic crime unit at the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS.) Mr Goddard said: "We know who they [the lawyers] are. We are aware of some of their activities and we are at varying stages of our investigations. We certainly have lawyers who perform the role like an old consigliere in the Mafia films. They know who their clients are and know how their clients make their money and know it isn't from a legitimate activity." [continues 158 words]
A GROWING quantity of lethal designer drugs, some up to 33 times more powerful than ecstasy, are being sold in Britain. Police issued a warning yesterday about the emergence of the new drugs, which have been responsible for three deaths. They fear that the toll could rise. The drugs are ecstasy derivatives and are sold under the names DOB, also known as Golden Eagle, and Flatliners, which is made from the chemical 4MTA. The National Criminal Intelligence Service believes that sales will increase as the ecstasy market diversifies and organised crime becomes involved in production. Les Fiander, of the NCIS drug unit, said people were taking the drugs without knowing that the physical side-effects could be lethal. [continues 147 words]
HEAD teachers should rethink their "zero tolerance" policy on drugs, which leads to the automatic expulsion of pupils, Estelle Morris, the school standards minister, said yesterday. She said permanent exclusion was not always the best way to deal with lesser incidents because the welfare of the pupil involved had to be taken into account. Mrs Morris said: "Drugs are a crime but they are also a child welfare problem." Head teachers needed to keep the "ultimate sanction" permanently to exclude pupils for serious offences, but there should be other approaches. [continues 416 words]
A CALL today by peers for cannabis to be legalised for medicinal use will be rejected by the Government despite pleas from multiple sclerosis sufferers who say the drug helps them to cope with the disease. In a report published this morning, the House of Lords science and technology committee urges the Government to allow doctors to prescribe cannabis for pain relief. The committee says ministers should not wait for the results of clinical trials, which are only just beginning and will last for several years. [continues 204 words]
PROPERTY and cash enjoyed by criminals will be confiscated without the need for a criminal conviction under legal changes recommended yesterday by a Government working party. A proposed major extension of "civil forfeiture", currently used only when suspected illicit cash is seized at borders, could lead to confiscation of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of assets from drug traffickers and criminals who escape prosecution through lack of evidence. At the moment, UKP10 million of assets are confiscated by courts in England and Wales each year from criminals, a tiny fraction of the annual turnover of the illegal drug trade which is estimated at up to UKP10 billion. [continues 341 words]
THE World Health Organisation has finally published a study which shows that there is no significant statistical link between passive smoking and lung cancer. As reported by The Telegraph in March, the 12-centre, seven-country European study failed to prove the anti-tobacco lobby's assertion that there is a significant correlation between passive smoking and lung cancer. The 10-year study was co-ordinated by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, based in Lyons, France, and involved 650 lung cancer patients who were compared with 1,542 healthy people. It looked at people who were married to or worked with smokers, who worked with and were married to smokers, and those who grew up with smokers. [continues 463 words]
THE possession of cannabis seed and the equipment necessary for the cultivation of the drug are to be outlawed, under proposals favoured by Home Office ministers. The Government is looking "sympathetically" at a demand from Britain's chief constables for an end to the legal traffic in cannabis seeds. Ministers think banning the seeds and equipment would send out a strong signal that they are prepared to be tough on drugs. The move follows intense lobbying from detectives who think it is an "absurd loophole" in the current law that anyone can legally buy cannabis seeds which can then be cultivated. [continues 51 words]
Five prison guards have been charged with conspiracy after prisoners complained they were disciplined by being put a cell with a 17-stone homosexual. In return for raping and beating the prisoners, convicted murderer Wayne Robertson was given extra food and tennis shoes, he told investigators. A grand jury was told that seven inmates at Corcoran State Prison in California, were killed during six years of terror by a gang of guards known as the Sharks. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry [end]
A BOY of five shot dead in a street near his home was the innocent victim of a dispute between drugs dealers, a court was told yesterday. Dillon Hull died instantly when he was hit in the head by a bullet allegedly intended for his stepfather, John Bates. Mr Bates, 28, a small-time drugs dealer, had been walking hand-in-hand with the child when they were confronted near the centre of Bolton, Greater Manchester, by a man wearing a motorcycle helmet, Preston Crown Court was told. [continues 589 words]
TWO young Amish men pleaded guilty in a Philadelphia court yesterday to conspiring to distribute cocaine and amphetamines, bringing to a swift end to one of the most embarrassing episodes in the history of the devout, reclusive communities which have occupied Pennsylvania since colonial times. Abner Stoltzfus and Abner King Stoltzfus, who are in their early twenties and not related, were charged with eight members of the Pagans, a motorcycle gang known for drug trafficking and violence. The involvement of the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - who farm without tractors, drive horse-drawn buggies and refuse to use electricity - with the biker gang has shocked many people. [continues 264 words]
A BOY at Eton, where Princes William, 16, and Harry, 14, are pupils, has been expelled for smoking cannabis. A school spokesman said yesterday: "A boy was asked to leave the school earlier this week in connection with a drugs incident. This is an internal matter that has been dealt with by the headmaster, who will not comment on disciplinary matters within the school." The boy, who has not been named, was caught smoking cannabis by Angus Graham-Campbell, housemaster at Common Lane House. A report in a newspaper yesterday said the boy was in the same lower sixth year as Prince William. John Lewis, the headmaster from New Zealand, has maintained a strict approach towards illegal drugs since he took over in 1994. In March, two sixth formers aged 17 and 18 were excluded from Eton after a policeman caught them smoking cannabis in Windsor, a mile from the school. [end]
AN accountant who found drugs and money hidden in her son's bedroom told a court yesterday that she turned him over to police in an attempt to "save him". The woman told police what she had found and then agreed to fetch the 15-year-old boy from a friend's house and bring him home, where detectives were waiting for him. The privately educated boy, who cannot be named, was given a two-year supervision order yesterday after he admitted five charges of possessing cannabis and one of supplying the drug. [continues 432 words]
Last week's jailing of a senior Merseyside officer demonstrated that not all bent coppers work in London. In fact, according to confidential documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph, they are everywhere - despite the police's public denials. Geoffrey Seed and Alasdair Palmer report 'INFORMATION is money," Elmore Davies said. "And I am privy to a great deal of information." As a detective chief inspector working on investigations into drug dealing and smuggling, Davies undoubtedly had information that was very valuable to criminals - and utterly devastating to his fellow policemen. Davies was willing to sell whatever he knew. A promise of ?10,000 from a drug baron, Curtis Warren, was enough to secure the knowledge that there was an undercover agent spying on Warren in his Dutch prison. It also bought information that would enable Warren's minions to intimidate a policeman whose evidence would be crucial to a trial Warren wanted aborted. It included details on how to get to the officer's children. How many more policemen like Davies are there? The judge who sentenced him evidently believes the answer is "very few". He said Davies's offences were "completely out of the normal line of cases of perverting justice and corruption". The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has publicly asserted the same. David Blakey, ACPO's president and Chief Constable of Mercia, stated recently that: "The true level of corruption in the modern police service is extremely low." [continues 1435 words]
POLICE corruption in Britain is now so widespread it may have reached levels which normally only occur in unstable Third World countries, according to a confidential document obtained by The Telegraph. The growth of the international drugs trade and the massive amounts of money available to criminals to offer as bribes are identified as the key cause. The document, the minutes of a meeting organised by the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), and attended by 10 of Britain's most senior officers and policy makers, states that "corrupt officers exist throughout the UK police service". NCIS's Director of Intelligence said that corruption may have reached "level 2: the situation which occurs in some Third World Countries". [continues 529 words]
A TOTAL of 286 individual allegations are being investigated against 39 detectives in a squad credited with cutting crime through "zero tolerance" policing. The scale of Operation Lancet, set up a year ago to investigate Middlesbrough CID, was disclosed by the Police Complaints Authority. Last year, the department attracted praise from Tony Blair and Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, and Michael Howard, his Conservative predecessor. Its high profile owed much to the publicity offensive of Det Supt Ray Mallon, who pledged to resign his post as head of the department if he failed to cut crime by a fifth in 18 months. His zero tolerance approach, used successfully in America, involved targeting house burglaries and anti-social crimes and brought stark results in reducing offences. [continues 425 words]
A PRODUCER with the BBC has received a caution from police after he was caught sniffing cocaine in his car while on a story about drink-driving. Officers also found a small amount of cannabis in Benedict Hamilton's car. The 31-year-old reporter who is a freelance producer working at the BBC's Home Programmes Department at White City, west London, received his caution last weekend. He was found with the drugs in his car late at night as he waited to confront a man he believed to be a habitual drink-driver. Yesterday the BBC stressed that, at the time of the offences, Hamilton was not employed by them and they had not asked him to look into the story. [continues 252 words]
BRANCHES of Woolworths have installed ultraviolet lights in their lavatories to make it difficult for drug addicts to see their veins after equipment for injecting heroin and amphetamines was found in the toilets. The lights were installed in Woolworths branches in Coventry and Plymouth, and other shopkeepers in Devon, including department stores and toy shops, have contacted police after finding drug equipment. Mike McGann, a spokesman for Woolworths, said that although customers find the lighting "a bit weird", they are understanding. "It's a minor inconvenience to customers, a bit like walking into a darkroom," he said. [continues 122 words]
