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Drug awareness

It’s important to be on the lookout for both drug users and drug dealers

Here are a few of the thing you should look out for:

Signs of drug use – materials

  • Torn-up beer mats/cigarette packets/bits of cardboard left on tables or in ashtrays
  • Foam stuffing taken from seats, bits of foam left around
  • Roaches (home-made filter tips from cannabis cigarettes)
  • Small packets made of folded paper, card or foil
  • Empty sweet wrappings left in toilets
  • Payment with tightly rolled banknotes, or notes that have been tightly rolled
  • Traces of blood or powder on banknotes
  • Drinking straws left in toilets
  • Traces of powder on toilet seats or other surfaces in toilets – or obviously wiped-clean surfaces
  • Syringes (danger of infection – do not touch with bare hands and should be disposed of properly)
  • Spoons left in toilets
  • Pieces of burned tinfoil

Signs of drug use – physical symptoms

  • Very dilated pupils
  • Excessive sniffing, dripping nose, watering or red eyes
  • Sudden severe cold symptoms following trip to toilet/garden/car park
  • White mark/traces of powder around nostrils

Signs of drug use – behaviour

  • Excessive giggling, laughing at nothing, non-stop talking
  • Unnaturally dopey, vacant staring, sleepy euphoria
  • Non-stop movement, jiggling about, dancing
  • Gagging or retching actions
  • Excessive consumption of soft drinks
  • Sudden, inexplicable tearfulness or fright
  • Any marked alteration in behaviour following trip to toilet/garden/car park

Signs of dealing

  • A person holding court, with succession of visitors who only stay with them for a short time
  • A person making frequent trips to the toilet or garden or car park, followed by different persons/people each time
  • People exchanging small packages or cash, often done in secretive manner, but may be quite open to avoid suspicion
  • Furtive, conspiratorial behaviour – huddling in corners and whispering
  • Conversation includes frequent reference to drugs, slang names

Dealers are not identifiable by appearance, they may be very respectable-looking.

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