Drug test machine used outside pubs and clubs

news.bbc.co.uk...

"Hundreds of revellers in Aberdeen have been tested for drugs on their way into pubs and clubs, police revealed.

A total of 753 people were screened using a pioneering drug detection device.

The portable machine, known as the Itemiser, was used for the first time in Scotland in Aberdeen this weekend."


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Okay, so Big Brother is now screening anyone who dares to go out and socialise.... So combined with the metal detectors that are in abundance on football match days*, it seems the punters will spend more time being swabbed and searched before they can even enter the premises.

Funny really, because the local Police were using a similar machine in my home town and swabbing people as they entered the pub. One of my good friends tested positive for HEROIN and they took him inside the van to search him....

Funny really, cos this guy doesn't even smoke cigarettes, never mind cannabis and never mind heroin.

Also, what if people say, have smoked a cannabis joint before leaving home and they get tested positive? Is this machine worthy of our time and government resources? Will that person who get tested get searched before EVERY club and pub?

Is it an invasion of EVERYONE's rights? Or is its use wholly justified?

Personally, I believe although the Police are trying their best at tackling the drug problem, they are not tackling the source of the problem, they are just going for the public as opposed to going for the big league drug dealers...

Once again, it's us the public who suffer....

Although I imagine the 'nothing to hide... nothing to fear' brigade will be jumping down my throat in a minute, I will tell you that apparantly 2/10 (or something similar) bank notes have been used for coc aine use and all it takes is a little contact with them and you'll find yourself being humiliated in the back of a police van.


* Oh and why do the Police use metal detectors in pubs and clubs on football days? Surely the hooligan would rather avoid risk of getting caught with a knife and much rather use an improvised weapon such as a pint glass or glass bottle?

[edit on 2-11-2008 by mr-lizard]

reply to post by mr-lizard


I was told this yesterday by my sister.

Im from, born and raised in aberdeen, but havent stayed their in 3 years. After hearing that im never going back again, as it litrely makes me sick..

the city with the most moronic and corrupt council in history strikes again!

im glad i got out when i did, i used to promote small events in clubs in aberdeen, and i woudl have rather cancell events that have the police act like this.

The source of the problem is from them and their black ops funding through drugs. Of course they're not going to get the bottom of the source of the problem! The CIA is notorious for its creation of this whole mess, and the US and UK and good buddies. Its good that you pointed out that the technology doesn't even work all the time and gives false positives. Interesting solution the police state comes up with.

Another disgusting harrassment on the masses.

The funniest bit about it is it's for clubs and pubs, correct? Yet..... ALCOHOL is a drug, and easily, without a doubt one of the worst ones. Without alcohol, clubs and pubs wouldn't even exist. I'm getting truly annoyed with this utter bull. Talk about mixed signals!

Originally posted by mr-lizard
Funny really, because the local Police were using a similar machine in my home town and swabbing people as they entered the pub. One of my good friends tested positive for HEROIN and they took him inside the van to search him....

Funny really, cos this guy doesn't even smoke cigarettes, never mind cannabis and never mind heroin.

That is because they do not want to say what they are really testing and finding a positive result for. The positive for heroin was just a cover and deflection.

What do they know that they are not telling?

Be interesting if anybody who knows a lot about the law and our rights, could shed some light on this subject...

So what do you suppose they are hiding (if anything?).... I'm open to your specualtion as to what gives you that idea.

Originally posted by mystiq
Its good that you pointed out that the technology doesn't even work all the time and gives false positives. Interesting solution the police state comes up with.

I used to work on the explosive version of this machine. It would amaze you to know how many products use a base that these machines are designed to detect. Every day household products that use TNT, or PETN, or something like that in them. There is a hand sanitizer that has Glycerine in it. So it wouldn't surprise me AT ALL if there was something on the people that got a false positive that had something they were supposed to detect on them.

Originally posted by Zaphod58

I used to work on the explosive version of this machine.

Zaphod58, I am continually amazed at the diversity of backgrounds you have. I have no reason to doubt you at all. In fact I just found, yet another, reason to be impressed:

Originally posted by Zaphod58
For all you thread killers, who would like to join up, feel free to
post here.
We're still working on our mission statement, but we currently have me as President...

Hey, some of these threads are really dangerous you know! You want to make sure to have some of us hired guns around for when they start getting a little too rowdy and have to be put in their place. You never know when you might want to take out a hit on a thread.

I do have a diverse background, I admit. I have been lucky enough to be able to do many different things that I have enjoyed doing. A lot of peole haven't been that lucky.

As for TKA, read the entire thread when you have a few days. Yes, it started as that, and became a support group for those of us who post in a thread just to have it die off afterwards. Or start a thread just to have it die immediately. Then became one of the longest running threads on BTS.

[edit on 11/2/2008 by Zaphod58]

that reminds me of what they do here in AZ. you might be stopped, and hope to god you didnt hug someone who hugged someone who smoked some meth that morning, because they have these devices that look like radar guns that can detect microgram worth of methamphetamines on your person or in your car, I also believe the device works with heroin but is not stated in the article, just local hearsay.
www.usatoday.com...

[edit on 11/2/2008 by psychedeliack]

Originally posted by ATS4dummies

What do they know that they are not telling?

Well if they're not telling anyone anything, then no one can answer that.

For all anyone knows, it could be to detect alien types of bacteria, literally alien...
Or perhaps for a deadly infection that could potentially wipe out the human race.

I could sit here and speculate for hours but in the end, I'd end with a lot more questions and no answers and potentially, a lot of wild theories that'd make me look like a mad woman.

Originally posted by BloodVortex
For all anyone knows, it could be to detect alien types of bacteria, literally alien...
Or perhaps for a deadly infection that could potentially wipe out the human race.

No they can't. They can only be set up to detect drugs or explosives . They can't detect any kind of virus, or anything else. When I was working on them, we did factory level repairs in the field instead of sending them back across country to the factory and losing them for two weeks or more at a time.

Originally posted by Zaphod58

No they can't. They can only be set up to detect drugs or explosives .

C'mon zephod58

These machines can detect any type of chemical signature they are designed to detect.
ANYTHING.
If it's made of atoms, it can be detected.

I tore these machines apart for 4 years. I know what they can do. The way they work they CAN'T detect viruses. They'd kill any virus that went into them. They can only be set up to detect non-living things like drugs or explosives. I can't go into detail about exactly how they work since it's considered Sensetive information, but if they could detect viruses, don't you think they'd have one out there at airports to keep people with Bird Flu or something nasty from geting on the plane?

Besides, if they could detect a virus or something along those lines we'd see them in hospitals. These machines are by FAR the best out there for what they do. It takes them 8 seconds to detect explosives or drugs, don't you think a hospital would LOVE to have one around instead of having to wait DAYS for test results?

[edit on 11/2/2008 by Zaphod58]

Originally posted by Zaphod58
They'd kill any virus that went into them. They can only be set up to detect non-living things like drugs or explosives. I can't go into detail about exactly how they work since it's considered Sensetive information
[edit on 11/2/2008 by Zaphod58]

Oh c'mon you just gave away the fact that they ionize, therefore they are mass spectrometers. Want to detect a virus? You don't need to detect the entire virus - just a chemical ratio of the protein markers. You say it's too complex? We can compute at over 3Ghz with a terrabyte of spectra data in the field.

These machines, with some extra modification can detect ANYTHING.

Yes it's a spectrometer of sorts (which was on their webpage at one time), but it's only capable of detecting a very limited number of things. It was only capable of getting a handful of the most common explosives, or a handful of the most common drugs. So you'd be limiting yourself to just a few of the most common viruses, you wouldn't be able to detect anything really exotic.

[edit on 11/2/2008 by Zaphod58]

OK,
1) increase the size of the spectrum data to search with a 1 terabyte drive
You still may have exotic unknowns
2) overlay that subset with something else - Ramen Spectroscopy, or even gas chromatography
3) Still have unknowns? OK turn to molecular modeling of double or triple bond candidates using, oh I don't know - Fast Fourier IR (FFIR) or Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (But it would be awfully heavy with that magnet inside)

These machines need to only be modified to use more than one method and they can pin point an unknown substance very easily.

Any Joe-six-pack can buy these things on ebay: Link



[edit on 2-11-2008 by ATS4dummies]

[edit on 2-11-2008 by ATS4dummies]

And then you have a COMPLETELY different machine. Which means years of testing to verify it works, writing the software to change the way it alerts, and the way it displays the alert etc. The REASON that these machines are so popular, and so good is because they're SIMPLE for the operator to use, and they're SIMPLE when it comes to them finding something. You're talking about a completely different machine than that the Itemiser really is.

Your spectrometers are NOTHING like what an Itemiser really is. The Itemiser is a simple machine designed to operate easily and to not be overly complicated to maintain. It works EXTREMELY well and is very reliable.

THIS is an Itemiser 3:



That is the newest version to come out.

This is the Itemiser 2:



This is the Vapor Tracer:



[edit on 11/2/2008 by Zaphod58]

Originally posted by Zaphod58
And then you have a COMPLETELY different machine. Which means years of testing to verify it works, writing the software to change the way it alerts, and the way it displays the alert etc. The REASON that these machines are so popular, and so good is because they're SIMPLE for the operator to use, and they're SIMPLE when it comes to them finding something. You're talking about a completely different machine than that the Itemizer really is.

[edit on 11/2/2008 by Zaphod58]

Thanks for the links by the way.
Sure, an Itemizer is a very narrow purpose device.
But these devices all do the same thing.
1) They have a chemical separation/ionization phase
2) They have a detector
3) They have a database of spectra signatures.

Now if I am a large institution and I give someone like, say, ITT a few million to modify an itemizer by widening the detector stage specs maybe using an array of chip sensors instead of the chemical type, adding some molecular modeling software to handle the exotic/unknowns, do you think they could come up with a working version in 6 months?
For the right price, I bet they could make DARPA jealous. :-)


[edit on 2-11-2008 by ATS4dummies]

[edit on 2-11-2008 by ATS4dummies]

reply to post by psychedeliack


Haha, I live in AZ too, I can't say i'll mind meth heads being a bit constrained, but it is ridiculous.

They got me in NY

After 9-11

With a THC detector they were testing (cost 2,800.00)

Right outside my house lol

But the Judge threw the charge straight in the garbage... it's NYC after all, last thing the judge wants is people being brought in for having had somoked weed

But yeah...

I took the ride in the Van by the use of a THC detector, these items are REAL

In the hands of Sheriff Joe OMG Deadly


But the one thing I thought, it being right after 9-11 was

They spent 2,800.00 on a THC detector, and brought me down...

when the Uranium detectors are 1,800.00 ????? a WTF moment if I have ever had one before in my life

How about Anthrax detectors lol







[edit on 2-11-2008 by mopusvindictus]