Way To Detect “Pot” Smokers Discovered

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32118, 14 October 1969, Page 5

Way To Detect “Pot” Smokers Discovered

(N.Z. Pi-ess Assn,—Co^v right) LONDON. British scientists have discovered a method of deciding if people have been smoking “pot,” even several hours after they had done so. This, according' to the

“Qaily Express,” could lead to a severe campaign on “pot” smoking. Under present drug laws police cannot prosecute unless they acutally find canabis in someone’s possession or in their home. This means they have to resort to raids designed to catch people actually with the drug. Now scientists have found a way of proving that a person has smoked “pot” up to three hours after the smoking Session has ended. Sensitive tests that have beten developed detect traces of marijuana-smoke on fingers and in saliva. These tests may well lead to a change in the law which would make prosecution much easier. Even under the present law the tests could lead to successful prosecution of drivers suspected of being under the influence of “pot.” Dr Elizabeth Tylden, a consulting psychiatrist, expressed alarm that many people drove after smoking "pot” including long-dis-tance lorry drivers. “They say it helps calm them, but it also impairs their judgment,” she said. Drug experts are generally dissatisfied with the present situation because people are not in possession of the drug, in legal terms, if it is already in their body.” “If you have got laws about possession it is absurd that they should exempt those : people with the drug already in their bodies,” Dr Tylden said.

“One of the very unfortunate results of this is that smokers sometimes swallow the rest of their supply if they are caught in a raid. The present law is an invitation to people to swallow their drugs and this can lead to a dangerous overdose.”