LAX LAWS 'COULD TURN NAZI CRANK INTO GLOBAL EPIDEMIC'

A NEW highly addictive drug used in Britain by clubbers and gay men is
becoming a global problem, according to a United Nations report
published today.

The huge increase in use of methamphetamine - crystal meth - is being
helped by lax restrictions on the chemicals used to manufacture it.
People who take it can experience a ten-hour high and increased sexual
arousal.

Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of a United Nations drug control
agency, said: If I want to pick on one major drug problem pandemic
today, it is methamphetamine.

It has not yet affected that much of Western European countries and
the UK but, as we know, as drug misuse occurs in North America, sooner
or later it gets here.

Methamphetamine is todays problem drug. We think that it is extremely
worrying.

We are trying to encourage governments to focus on the precursor
chemicals used in the drugs manufacture, so that we can try to prevent
any wider abuse of methamphetamine.

The drug is known by various names, including ice, meth, tina and Nazi
crank. It was first developed in 1919 and used by troops to keep
awake. It was rumoured that Hitler injected it twice a day, hence the
name Nazi crank.

Introducing the annual report of the UNs International Narcotics
Control Board, Professor Ghodse said that crystal meth was now
regarded as the No 1 drug problem in North America. He said that the
extent of its use in Britain was hidden by the fact that seizures and
arrests were included in figures for amphetamines.

Statistics for the amount of crystal meth seized by police and Customs
are not collected separately. The Home Office has been alerted to the
emerging trend. In November Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary,
ordered an early warning system to be put in place to determine
whether the use of crystal meth was spreading and that drug deaths
should be monitored to see whether they were linked with it.

Customs will send all seizures of odourless white powders to forensic
labs for analysis and new mental patients with drug problems will be
tested to see if they have taken crystal meth.

In November the Governments Advisory Council on Drugs Misuse advised
against reclassifying it from Class B to Class A because it could have
the unintended consequence of engendering interest among potential
users.

The UN report also highlights figures showing that Britons are the
highest users of cocaine and big users of cannabis. A report published
last November found that 6.8 per cent of adults admitted that they had
tried cocaine, compared with 4.9 per cent of Spaniards, the
second-largest proportion.

Deaths from cocaine abuse in Britain have reached the highest level
since the Government started keeping records. The number of fatalities
linked to cocaine abuse almost doubled over four years, to 147 in 2004.

Britain is top of the European league table for cocaine abuse and is
fast approaching levels seen in America, the EUs drug agency said last
year.

Todays UN report also highlights that drug cartels and suppliers are
increasingly using the postal system to smuggle narcotics into Britain.

There has also been a growth in illegal internet suppliers in
South-East Asian countries such as Thailand, which sell and send by
post restricted medicines, including the sedative diazepam.

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DANGERS OF THE LATEST CRAZE

# Methamphetamine: known as ice, Nazi crank, meth, tina, Christine, yaba
and crazy

# Class B drug. Up to 5 years in jail for possession; up to 14 years for
dealing

# Snorted, injected, taken in pill form and smoked

# Gives ten-hour high and increases sexual arousal
# Reduces tiredness and suppresses appetite

# Popular among gay men

# Used in nightclubs and among immigrants from South-East Asia

# Temporarily blinded the US singer Rufus Wainwright

# Can cause psychosis, heart and lung problems and tooth loss

# Was originally used in nasal decongestants and bronchial inhalers