Published: 12 February 2015
Q: The Police visited my premises last night and did a general licensing check to make sure that all conditions were being complied with. They found no problems but at the same time they undertook some drugs swabs in the toilets and told me that the tests had revealed signs of drugs use. They said that they were going to write to me but I am not sure what to do about this?
A: This is happening more and more up and down the country. When the Police write to you they will probably be able to give you a level from the tests undertaken which will indicate how severe or otherwise the problem is. The difficulty for you as an operator is that you cannot actually be in a toilet cubicle with a customer to prevent this happening altogether. Nonetheless, there are measures which you can take to try to minimise the chances of people being able to use drugs within your premises. You should start with staff training to make sure that people are vigilant and can spot the signs of drugs use. It is also worth conducting regular ‘toilet checks’ which are clearly documented to show that you are being diligent. It may be even better if there is a visible indication of the regular checks within the toilets themselves as this may act as a deterrent. You should also put signage within the premises indicating that you operate a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards drugs use.
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