Police seek ban on bulk drug-cutting chemicals

Chief Reporter

Monday 30 July 2012

POLICE are urging ministers to change the law to help crack down on drug barons caught with common chemicals used to bulk out illegal drugs.

LINEd UP: Legal benzocaine is used by dealers to adulterate cocaine. Picture:Stewart Attwood

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Lucy Adams Chief reporter

Officers are growing increasing concerned that Scotland has become a UK staging post for the legal substances which are used to "cut" illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin in order to maximise profits.

Talks are going on between the Scottish Government and Home Office to change the law so those with large amounts of cutting agents such as benzocaine – used to cut cocaine but also used as a local anaesthetic and in cough sweets – have to prove they have the chemicals for a good reason or face court.

In the past year the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency seized 328kg of benzocaine, a significant increase on the 217kg seized in 2010/11. Strathclyde Police seized 1200kg in the same time period.Pharmaceutical drugs benzocaine and lidocaine cost around £10 a kilogram to buy but can be sold for up to £50,000 a kilo if mixed with cocaine.Detective Chief Superintendent John Cuddihy said: "There's a gap in the legislation. If a 25kg drum of benzocaine is found in the boot of a car coming up the M8 in the absence of anything else in that car, we can't do anything with that. "But it really should be that the proof thereof should lie with them to show what they have got it for. If they are sitting with 50kg of benzocaine in their high-rise flat then why have they got it there? That is what we need the legislation for. It would require a Home Office change. "Lactose is used in the dairy industry but it also used to cut amphetamine. If someone is found with a tonne of lactose in their garden shed they should have to prove why they have got it. Why would they have it unless they're involved with the dairy industry?"Drug traffickers are importing chemicals such as benzocaine directly into Scotland from India and China, according to intelligence. It allows them to maximise profits for minimal risks because the cutting agents are not in themselves illegal."In Strathclyde we've identified one organised crime group involved in the procurement of two tonnes of benzocaine," Mr Cuddihy said. "That gives some notion of what we're involved in. We've been able to map it and watch the distribution to Liverpool and Manchester. We have a reversal of the normal routes. "Glasgow and Scotland is normally seen as the end of the supply chain for drugs but we have become one of the main staging posts for benzocaine and other cutting agents here to supply organised crime groups down south. "We've supplied that information to Kenny MacAskill and the Serious and Organised Crime Task group and they are looking at where we need to make changes to the legislation and they are addressing this to the Home Secretary. "We need to fill the gap in the legislation to impose further sanctions on those who wish to import such substances. Why would someone want to import two tonnes of benzocaine to Scotland? GlaxoSmithKline and others use far less."A Scottish Government spokesman said the use of cutting agents in illicit drugs in Scotland is a complex issue of real concern which it is committed to tackling.He added: "We are working with a range of partners including Scottish law enforcement colleagues, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Home Office to examine and explore the options that are available to address this particular issue."

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Police seek ban on bulk drug-cutting chemicals

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