HOW CUSTOMS WILL CHECK FOR INGESTED DRUGS

Passengers travelling through the island's two international airports will
be subject to a random drug test to determine if they are smuggling illegal
drugs, which have been ingested.

* Step one - trained customs officers will pick out 'suspicious-looking'
passengers, depending on their behavioural pattern.

* Step two - the individual will be escorted to a room where a sample of
urine is taken in a container. It is then processed on the Emit machine,
which will indicate if the person has narcotics drugs in his/her system.
Ivy O'Gilvie, a senior Customs officer, said the machine is 90 per cent
accurate.

* Step three - if the results are positive, then the individual will be
taken to hospital where he/she is treated and the drug retrieved. An arrest
is then effected.

According to Miss O'Gilvie, passengers have the right to refuse to undergo
the test, but pointed out that, under the Customs Law, they are required to
comply. She stressed that if persons refuse, then it's likely that they
will have to do it at the hospital.

Miss O'Gilvie explained that since the machine was installed over the
weekend no one has been tested positive. The processing of persons takes
six to seven minutes.

She however emphasised that they are "always on the look-out for different
methods used to smuggle illegal drugs".

Reports are that by the end of the week, another machine will be installed
at the Sangster International Airport in St. James. Customs officers there
are now being trained how to use the machine.

Checked-by: Richard Lake