DRUGS ARE BIGGEST THREAT TO PEACE

DRUGS are a bigger problem than drink in Middlewich's pubs, a landlord
claimed this week.

John Chapman, of the Kings Arms in Queen Street, called on police to
do more to tackle drug users in the town.

"If they sorted out the drugs half the trouble in this town would go,"
he said.

"The thing with a drunk is that you can more or less control them,
they will just fall over, but with druggies you don't know what they
will do and that scares us."

He says his older punters are now too scared to venture into the town
at night.

"A lot will just come here and then go straight home," he said. Mr
Chapman, 60, has been landlord at the Kings Arms for 12 years, and is
proud of his trouble-free pub. But in the past year he has seen an
increase in drug taking.

"The biggest threat we have got is drugs, they are so easy and cheap
to get hold of," he said.

"This past 12 months is the first time that I have known lads go into
the toilets together and once you see them go in you know they are
doing something."

Mr Chapman's hard-line approach to drug users has made his pub
relatively problem free, and if he senses any sign of drug taking he
calls the police.

He added: "My answer is to get the police in and bar them for
life."

He is now calling for sniffer dogs to be deployed in the town's pubs
to stamp out the problems once and for all.

"If they put the dogs in there wouldn't be a drug in the place," he
said.

Police are considering using sniffer dogs in the town.

PCSO Richard Garrett, from Middlewich CAT team, said: "It is something
that is being looked into and hopefully something that can be used in
the future.

"But we would encourage landlords to phone us straight away if they
suspect anything is going on on the premises with relation to drugs."