Darlington Police have announced (apparently in a World’s first) that they will be slightly inconveniencing cocaine users by putting the toilet cisterns in pubs and clubs out of action for snorting with an amazing ‘Anti Cocaine’ spray.
According to the product creators, Millwood Manufacturing, “the product incorporates the Worlds bitterest tasting chemical called BITREX. This product leaves an unpalatable taste in the mouth. You will not want to swallow drugs with this product on it tastes horrible!”
This is one of those moments that shows in no uncertain terms that the ‘War on Drugs’ is simply a war on people.
Previous ‘Anti Cocaine’ adventures in farce include the police in Essex actually advising publicans to spray WD40 on their toilet cisterns.
Ray Dowsett, manager of Fibbers nightclub in Clacton-on-Sea, was quoted as saying: “We were originally advised by the police to use WD-40. We also heard about it from other venues.”
The advise has now been upgraded to suggest that ‘Blokit Anti-Drug Spray’ on your toilet cistern is a better option.
Harm creation
Is this what you’d want for your child if they were out experimenting with drugs? Some damaging carcinogenic chemical up their nose? What are they thinking?
Whilst some Tory ministers may enjoy the principle of injuring cocaine users, the moral position of these actions is highly dubious.
This is clearly not harm reduction whichever way you look at it. It may even be harm creation. As well as making the police look like a laughing stock, there are also potential negative affects for other people using the toilets in question which are completely unexplored or tested.
Very little information is given about the product’s ingredients on the website, which includes spelling errors. Trustworthy?
‘Use in all areas you suspect drug use is happening, typically enclosed areas away from public such as, toilets, o ces, baby changing areas’
No effect
It turns out the product has actually been used before (in Liverpool) and it has clearly had absolutley no effect on their cocaine problem.
Pure window dressing. Jobs for the boys so they can look like they are doing something. And loads of cash for the people selling this atrocious product. Perhaps the police are on commission.
The Facebook comments say it all: “Stop wasting millions on a non-winnable drugs war and focus the money back into community policing, people want to see coppers walking the streets not spraying the top of pub toilets.”
As various people have pointed out on the Facebook posts, many cocaine users don’t even bother with toilets now. They just snort out the bag with a key.
Takes about 4 seconds if the coke it already powdered (so I’m told). Or they use their phone. Or anything flat.
“Absolutely ridiculous”
We reached out to a Darlington resident who had this to say: “What, the war on cocaine is being fought in a Darlington toilet?
“The South American drug kingpins must be quaking in their boots. This is utterly preposterous, absolutely ridiculous. What an incredibly stupid waste of police resources.”
Of course the company selling the product, Millwood Manufacturing, will be benefitting from the free publicity of having their name on the Police’s Facebook page and press releases.
At least, I suppose, the police can LOOK like they are doing something online. A Facebook post and some buzz has certainly got people’s attention.
It’s just a shame it’s for such idiotic reasons.
>This product leaves an unpalatable taste in the mouth.
I was under the impression that people took cocaine nasally, not orally?
This is a ridiculous and pointless product for many reasons. First off, if I was using cocaine in a public toilet I would’t be using any of the surfaces to snort it off irrespective of whether it had this spray on or not – it’s a public toilet, for God’s sake.
As the article observes I’d either be using a key or if I was lucky enough to have cocaine in rock form that needed crushing before snorting I’d use my phone or at least put down a bank card or similar on the surface in question and use that to make the lines on instead. That’s just common sense – I’m not likely to snort something off a surface in a public toilet any more than I’m likely to lick that surface. Drug users aren’t animals.
And as for spraying WD-40 or similar on these surfaces, I’ve been aware of this (alleged) practice in Wetherspoons pub toilets going back many years. Again as the article observes it’s actively causing harm to people who really need support. Also, if you have a reasonable belief that someone is going to snort something off a surface and you spray it with a toxic substance without giving any notice or warning then I would say that borders on assault.