Alan Lodge's Blog

Posted on 16 July 2002 by admin

MOBILE PHONE: LOCATION DATA

INFORMATION HELD BY THE COMPANIES ON CUSTOMERS

This is a tale of trying to get ‘Location Data’ from communication companies on the use of a mobile phone.

To explain my interest a little further.

I have been at demonstrations, when I’ve seen people, I know to be involved in the organisation of the event, use their mobile phone. Shortly after, I’ve seen a police ‘snatch squad’ charge in and arrest the person concerned. Having been nearby, I’ve not seen these people throw rocks or abuse that otherwise might well have caused them to be targeted. I could, of course, nave no idea if other ‘intelligence’ was being used…..

From the articles I’ve sited here, companies, giving evidence in court, sometimes only guarantee a user location to quite a large area [35Km in Cellnet o2’s case!]

Thus, they could not ‘triangulate’ an individual in a crowd. HOWEVER, I’ve seen people ‘lifted’ under these conditions a few times now.

I had thus conducted the following experiment, to get copies of my own ‘location data’, by a ‘Subject Access Request” under the Data Protection Act.

To see if I might make some estimate of these increasing capabilities.

Just been working and sharing information with Steven Mathieson, a freelance reporter and contributor on communication issues in the Guardian.

Over the last few months he had produced articles to do with the ability of mobile phone companies to supply ‘location data’ on the use of a mobile phone [cellphone to the US readers here].

The pieces that first attracted my attention were:

The net’s eyes are watching: The new anti-terrorism bill may force internet firms to spy on us.

S A Mathieson reports

Thursday November 15, 2001

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,593343,00.html

You can ring, but you can’t hide: Our mobile phones track every move we make, but we’re entitled to see their logs. S A Mathieson went on a lengthy search for his

Thursday November 29, 2001

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,608434,00.html

In sight of the law: The police and local authorities are using technology to keep a close watch on our every move.

SA Mathieson looks behind the scenes

Thursday March 1, 2001

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,444313,00.html

Caught in the Wap: 3G may be strangled at birth if networks don’t put security first

SA Mathieson

Guardian

Thursday March 28, 2002

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4383023,00.html

Track your every move: Big-name companies monitor all your purchases – and you have a right to see the results.

S A Mathieson reports

Thursday May 16, 2002

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,715871,00.html

Steven Mathieson Brief biography

After graduating from King’s College at Cambridge University, Steven spent a year travelling in North America, Australasia and south-east Asia. On returning, he joined Corporate Finance, a specialist financial title owned by Euromoney Publications.

He joined the newsdesk staff of Computing in November 1997, and reported on issues including government policy, ecommerce, the IT job market and corporate software. He also wrote occasional features and viewpoint columns, and chose which Dilbert cartoon the paper printed.

He left in February 2000 to pursue a freelance career. His clients now include the Guardian, Health Service Journal and Computing. He lives in Bath.

http://www.samathieson.com

Chronology

This is the chronology of my ‘Subject Data Access Request, to get Information & location data derived from the use of a mobile phone. I think, by showing you this lot, I demonstrate that they don’t want to tell me …….!

 17th Dec 01 Letter to Cellnet of initial enquiry.

 20th Dec 01 Cellnet reply saying not entitled to data.

 28th Jan 02 Formal request to Cellnet.

 22nd Feb 02 Letter to Information Commission regarding no response from Cellnet.

 01st Mar 02 Information Commission replies saying I’ve not waited required 40 days.

 11th Mar 02 Re-apply to Information Commission for assistance and investigation.

 12th Mar 02 Information Commission replies – commencing the process.

 03rd Apr 02 Information Commission response saying Cellnet had not received my application.

 09th May 02 Letter to Information Commission as Cellnet has still not replied, as per Commissioner letter of 3rd April.

 6 June 02 Letter to Cellnet: Subject Access Request [applic. On forms] re: ‘Location Data’ held by Cellnet

 21 June 02 Cellnet / o2 finally reply with an extensive document [ 40 pages long ], but with the location data, concealed within their own coding. Translation of which might be ‘commercially sensitive’ they say, Where I came in on the 17th December 2001

TO BT CELLNET

17th December 2001.

Information: “location data” derived from the use of a mobile phone.

Dear Sir,

Have read an article in Guardian [29 Nov 01] from the Online section, in which information on the use of a mobile phone is discussed.

The purpose of the article was to discuss the use and databasing of “location data” derived from the use of a mobile phone.

I have an interest in these matters and for a first enquiry then, would ask you what information can be released and what procedure I should follow to apply for it.

I note that there are many privacy implications here and additionally wondered if there was any guidance that Cellnet followed in dealing with such matters. Is this publicly available?

Thanking you for any assistance.

>>>>

FROM BT CELLNET

20th December 2001

Dear Mr Lodge

Thank you for your letter dated 17th December 2001.

I have been in contact with our legal department who deals with Data Protection enquiries. They have advised me that details pertaining to the transmission of calls and their corresponding transmitter locations are not considered personal details, to which you are entitled to access under the Data Protection Act.

Such information is considered commercially sensitive as it directly refers to our operational processes. Details such as call duration, date and time of call, dialled digits, cost of call and whether the call was made within the UK or whilst roaming, can be accessed upon a written request to our Data Controller. Details on how we route a call through our network is information the belongs the BT Cellnet and to be disclosed requires a court order.

Yours etc ……

Erika Lowe

BT Cellnet Complaint Resolution

++++

Slightly amazing job title to reply, I hadn’t complained, I only asked!!

>>>>

TO BT CELLNET

Monday, 28 January 2002

Information: “location data” derived from the use of a mobile phone.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letter dated 20 Dec 2001.

You will know from your records that I was enquiring about the provision of ‘location data’. My interests here, was sparked on reading a Guardian article, dated: 29 Nov 01 from the Online section.

Please will you forgive my confusion, but your reply, does seem to be at significant variance to the conclusions of this article. [printout enclosed].

“I understand that I have a statutory right under the Data Protection Act 1998, section 7 (1), to issue a Subject Access Request, obliging you to disclose in full all data your organisation holds on me. Please treat this letter as a Subject Access Request for all my personal data.

It is my understanding that this personal information includes location data concerning which base station my phone is registered with during a given time period. I am particularly concerned with seeing this information.

If you do not believe you are obliged to disclose my personal data under the terms of the Act, I would be grateful if you can provide me with an explanation.”

>>>>

Compliance Officer

Information Commissioner

Dear Sir / Madam.

On reading a Guardian article, dated: 29 Nov 01 from the Online section, titled: ” You can ring, but you can’t hide ”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4309424,00.html

The article deals with the collection of “Location Data” by mobile phone companies.

Reading the piece, I discovered that the author had successfully applied for this information under the Data Protection Act.

However, on trying this myself, it generated this correspondence. You will note in the exchange that I have ask for and been refused this information on the grounds, quote:

” Such information is considered commercially sensitive as it directly refers to our operational processes “

However, this is at variance with the experience of the author of this piece.

I thus contacted them again, and pointed out:

I believe that I am entitled to this information and think that BT Cellnet is prevaricating. I have received no further replies from them.

In view of all this, are you able to advise me what I can do next. I still wish to pursue the matter.

>>>>

04 March 2002

Hello Steven

Gosh, what a long and tortuous route..!

You may remember that I’d written to Cellnet regarding ‘location data’, associated with mobile phone usage. You already have a copy of the correspondence I’ve had with them.

I had first written to Cellnet on Monday, 17 December 2001 and received a ‘fob-off’!!

As you had suggested, I wrote again on Monday, 28 January 2002, including a paragraph making clear that this was a ‘subject access request’. Still nothing happened,

So I e-mailed the story so far to the Information Commissioners Office. Have just received a reply from them this morning, pointing out that they can’t help till after 40 days of non-compliance with request. It appears that this is counted from the last letter, rather than the original request.

So on my calculations; I have to go round again if I’ve not heard back by Monday 11th March, beginning of next week. You may also like to know that I’ve not heard from MI5 either! [that is, since returning my proof of identity]. Their 40 days expire on the 7th March. The information Commissioner doesn’t know about my other request, so might end up getting back to them with a ‘job lot’.

So there you have it. Diligence seems to be required.

>>>>

My formal request, made under the Data Protection Act

Please supply all ‘location-specific’ data generated my mobile phone, including but not exclusively cell ID data. I Believe that the personal information you would hold on me, as a customer, includes location data concerning which base station my phone is registered with during a given time period.

>>>>

15 March 2002

RE: Location Data / mobile phone use.

Hello Steven

Thanks for your e-mail yesterday, confirming that you’ve received the last wedge of paper I’d sent you.

After dealing with the various time limits they were operating, I have now received a preliminary response from the Information Commissioner.

I see this is going to be really uphill!

You’ll note that they say they were aware of the issues you’d raised in your articles, but my case is different! I don’t see how or why, but will send you the next instalment as and when.

You say you have another piece that will be appearing in Guardian Online. Would appreciate a reminder.

>>>>

Compliance Officer

Information Commissioner

09 May 2002

I had a number of communications with your office, over the last couple of months, regarding my difficulty in getting information from Cellnet. You may see from the record, that I’d written to them requesting ‘location data’ regarding the use of a mobile phone. They had not replied, and I was thus seeking your advice and help.

It appears that on your enquiries, Cellnet had stated that they did not receive my request in the first place. This was strange, since I had written to the same address a little earlier, with my initial enquiry and received an unfavourable reply. Then, the ‘follow-up’ letter I’d written to them was the formal request for information and they say they had not received this.

Anyway, according to your letter of 3rd April: they were then

“going to contact me with regards to fulfilling your request”.

Unfortunately, as of today, no further response has been received.

What do you think I should do next?

· Give up!

· Ask for further advice and help from yourselves

· Go round again, sending the same letter to Cellnet as I had on 17th December 2001

I am of course, grateful for any assistance, as I do feel a little ignored.

>>>>

From: Information Commissioner

15 May 2002

Dear Mr Lodge

We have contacted BT Cellnet, they have informed me that there was a breakdown of communications on their part, and that they have now contacted you regarding your subject access request and the action that is to be taken

I trust this is an accurate reflection of the situation

Yours etc ….

>>>>

TO Data Controller

Cellnet O2 Ltd

Leeds

06 June 2002

Spoke to you a couple of weeks ago on the telephone, regarding my difficulties in getting information.

I had first applied back in January. I received an unsatisfactory reply, and, after taking some advice, sent the enclosed letter. I waited a respectful time and having not heard from your organisation, contacted the Data Commissioner for further help. I think that it was in response to this, that you first contacted me.

Because of the delay in first hearing from you, you had offered to waive the £10.00 fee. Thank you very much for this.

>>>>

FROM BT Cellnet – Finally reply with ‘some’ information

21 June 2002

Received 40 pages of information in column of meaningless code

Telephone conversation will Cellnet / o2 Data Controller saying that they will not ‘translate’ these codes since they represent ‘commercially sensitive’ data.

This is were I came in 20th December 2001.

>>>>

24 June 2002

Hello Steven

Gosh! Well having started this project / application, back in December, I now have a reply from Cellnet [now o2].

Because of the adventure to now, the data person at o2 rang me to say it was all customer services fault in the first place. Anyway, since I’d been messed about, they were waiving the £10.00 fee.

Am sending you photocopy of what was supplied. There are the covering parts, but the full submission was 40 pages I think. So have copied the first couple and the last page, to give you an idea of the ‘form’.

Well, I understand the first 5 columns ok. The last three columns are about location. However, I don’t understand any of that…….. Is it intelligible to you?

I read somewhere in the Data Registrars advice, that data, on subject access request, should be intelligible ( but am unsure now.).

So, if this is useful to you, then use it, [aside from the phone numbers etc of course]

All quite contemporary eh?

With the next stage of the RIPA and Blunketts latest wheezes. Although, postponed, again, it seems to come round again, on 6 monthly cycles now……

===================================

This is an ongoing Project ………….. !

It will result in a series of articles in the Guardian, Starting in August 2002

Alan,

Thanks for your ongoing help. The site I mentioned is http://www.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk/.

By the way, this is roughly how I’ll be describing your experiences (bear in mind I’ve had to compress things a bit). Anything inaccurate as far as you can see? Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Steven Mathieson

(Note – this follows a description of my nine-month odyssey to get my data, hence the start.)

Mr Lodge’s enquiries were similarly tortuous. He wrote to BT Cellnet (as O2 was then called) on 17 December, and was turned down flat. He tried again on 28 January, and heard nothing. He complained the Information Commissioner’s office, which said he had not given Cellnet the full 40 days. He wrote again after 40 days had elapsed. The office wrote back, saying Cellnet had not received his letter of 28 January. One hopes the mobile networks don’t lose similar communications from police investigating murders.

On 21 June, six months after his first request, O2 sent Mr Lodge a document providing ‘Cell Site Analysis’. This provides three columns of encoded location data for outbound calls made from 6 October 2000 to 19 June 2002 – more than 20 months’ worth. But as with Orange, O2 refused to decode the information, pleading ‘commercially sensitive information’.

Suplimentary links:

Radiocommunications Agency http://www.radio.gov.uk/

Radio Communications Agency: Mobile Phone Base Station Database http://www.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk/

Your Boss May Know Where You Are – Wired 31 May 2002

http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,52852,00.htm

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Posted on 16 July 2002 by admin

Check this out:

The following from the BBC

Video shows LA police beating boy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/38126000/rm/_38126181_police_bryant22_vi.ram

An officer appears to hold the boy’s head against a car

A white Los Angeles police officer has been suspended after being caught on video beating a black teenager during an arrest. The 16-year-old boy, Donovan Jackson, became involved in a scuffle with officers after his father was stopped over a minor motoring offence.

The videotape, which was shot by a tourist at a nearby hotel, shows the handcuffed boy being punched by one of the officers, Jeremy Morse.

It has also been revealed that Officer Morse was named last month in a complaint by Neilson Williams, a 32-year old African-American man, who claims he too was beaten by the officer.

The Donovan Jackson arrest took place near a petrol station in the Inglewood district of Los Angeles – a mainly black and Hispanic area of the inner city – on Saturday night.

The police say the confrontation happened after they made a routine traffic stop.

The teenager, who denies he was resisting arrest, is alleged to have assaulted one of the officers.

The tape shows the handcuffed boy being picked up and slammed face-down against the back of a patrol car.

Mr Donovan was then punched in the jaw by police officer Jeremy Morse, who has since been suspended pending an inquiry into the incident.

Officer Morse and his colleagues say that before the video started rolling the boy had lunged at him, leaving him with cuts on his head, ear and elbow that required hospital treatment.

On the tape, Officer Morse can be seen bleeding from a cut above his ear.

‘Extremely disturbing’

Inglewood police lieutenant Eve Irvine described the circumstances of the arrest as “extremely disturbing”.

“The incident is being taken very seriously,” she said.

We intend to seek justice in the courts unless we get a call from the proper authorities saying: ‘We want to do the right thing without a jury

Joe Hopkins, family lawyer

She added that both the Inglewood police department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had begun formal investigations into the incident.

Joe Hopkins, the lawyer for the teenager’s family, said the boy was seated on the ground before the officers started hitting him and that the attack was racially motivated.

He said one of the officers had called the boy “nigger” during the incident.

“We intend to seek justice in the courts unless we get a call from the proper authorities saying: ‘We want to do the right thing without a jury,'” Mr Hopkins said.

The video, shot by tourist Mitchell Crooks from his motel room, has been shown on television throughout America, prompting an angry reaction.

Human rights groups and activists from the black community have been swift to compare the incident to the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King.

When the white officers involved in that case were acquitted it led to some of the worst riots ever seen in Los Angeles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_2117000/2117161.stm

===================

The Duncan Campbell, in the Guardian at said :>

The amateur videotape of the incident has already prompted four separate investigations and the suspension of the policeman concerned. ……

A young white DJ staying at a nearby hotel ran outside with his video camera after hearing screams. What he filmed has now been broadcast countless times on local television.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,752370,00.html

>>>>>>>>>>>

I am in the proceess of trying find this chap [ Mitchell Crooks ], and send him a mail from us video -photo activist types, here in the UK. To tell him of our appreciation, and a jolly well done. We also know a thing or two about police beating and photographic evidence, from the beanfield, before and bloody onwards ………………..!!

Interestingly, however, after this situation, he is the only one in jail! It appears he has some previous matter outstanding! Oh god! it’s not fair. but we know that ……..

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Posted on 15 July 2002 by admin

A Squatter in the US explains something of what it’s like, over there.

Thanks for your response to my email. You’re the first one so far. Now, in answer to some of your questions! Squatting in the USA varies greatly from city to city. There are fairly large anarchist squatter communities in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Seattle Washington, New York and Portland Oregon. Squatting is not legal but most of the major cities have serious problems with abandoned buildings and it is a crime of lesser concern to the law enforcement agencies. Philadelphia has a huge homeless population but also has the most abandoned buildings of any city in the USA. The abandoned buildings are the result of urban sprawl. Most middle class people have left the cities to live in the suburbs, leaving only the very wealthy and the very poor in the cities. This results in a great disparity in the distribution of wealth between the neighborhoods. The current joke in this area is that the reason the crime rates of the city have fallen so much is that the criminals can’t afford to live here anymore. Crime rates in the suburbs, on the other hand, have soared.

There are many different types of squatters of course. There are those who live this way because of necessity and those who do it as a choice. There are the squats that have been fixed up and are social action hotbeds which the cops usually leave alone and then there are the buildings that are mainly inhabited by homeless people with pretty bad drug problems. These squats are very unsanitary and dangerous as well as the most common drug used in this situation is generally crack. I was working at a community garden on squatted land in West Philly, which was started up by the Rainbow people 5 years ago. The land we’re gardening on is mostly surrounded by ‘crack houses.’ One girl living there would prostitute herself out to other crackheads in order to get drugs. At one point one of her John’s gave her a puppy which she tied to the porch and never fed. We tried to get it away from her but she would fly into a fit and start attacking us everytime we approached her house. We contacted the humane society but they weren’t willing to do anything about it. In the end the puppy died. It must have been on her porch for three weeks before she figured it out and basically went mad. She dissapeared pretty soon after that. Some of the squatters-by-choice also have drug problems but among the social action crowd its not so bad. There is definitely a cliqueness to squatters here though which I feel has kept me from getting too involved with them. I don’t look very alternative in their eyes (ie, no dreds or tattoos or dyed hair) so that made it hard to meet people. Also the political squatters in this area tend to be tied in to the punk scene, which I like, but at the same time it leads to these squatters thinking they are tougher than everyone else, hence better. I don’t really like popularity contests. I don’t really know what you mean by ‘redneck phenomenon.’ I have yet to meet a squatter that one might consider a redneck. The USA definitely had its fair share of rednecks. I used to consider rednecks an american phenomenon brought on by the illusion of freedom and superiority and patriotism that is broadcasted over here but then I did some traveling around the world and realized that sort of attitude can basically be found everywhere. So anyway, I hope that gives you an idea! I tend to rant, so I’m not even certain if this all makes sense!

I haven’t found a place to stay yet in London. I did contact the ASS but haven’t heard back yet. Any other advice you could give me would really be appreciated. I might even be willing to pay rent if it were in a house filled with people who tended to lean more towards social action and vegetarianism. What I don’t want is to end up in a situation where I have roommates who could care less about anything other than drinking and sex and who eat tons of sausage or something 🙂

Thanks again,

D

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Posted on 15 July 2002 by admin

Lacket Links

This lot, going in my personal blog as reminder of my data base content. But i will be able to access it, as i toodle about. A useful resource, me thinks ……

[ all up to date, and running, as of 14^th July 2002 ]

Undercurrents http://www.undercurrents.org/

Beyond TV http://www.beyondtv.org/

Pirate TV http://www.piratetv.net/

Conscious Cinema http://www.consciouscinema.co.uk/

DAMN – Direct Action Media Network http://www.tao.ca/earth/damn

i-Contact Video Network http://www.videonetwork.org/video.html

Suvertise http://www.subvertise.org/

Exploding Cinema http://bak.spc.org/exponet/

Groovy Movie – Moffhttp://www.groovymovie.org/

Engage – Tactical Media http://www.engage.nu/tm/

Indymedia UK http://www.indymedia.org.uk/

Indymedia UK Bristol http://bristol.indymedia.org/

Indymedia Newsreel http://newsreal.indymedia.org/

Spectacle video http://www.spectacle.co.uk/

Video Activist Network http://www.videoactivism.org/

Video Network http://www.videonetwork.org/

Whispered Media http://www.whisperedmedia.org/

Culture Shop http://www.cultureshop.org/

Tech2 http://tech2.southspace.org/

TV oneworld http://tv.oneworld.net/

Spectacle video http://www.spectacle.co.uk/

Shooting People UK Film Network http://www.shootingpeople.com/

MediaChannel’s Daily Media News http://www.mediachannel.org/

Media Trust http://www.mediatrust.org/

Injustice http://www.injusticefilm.co.uk/

Witness – Human rights http://www.witness.org

Good1.comhttp://www.good1.com/

Lacket Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lacketvideo

nuj-newmedia · NUJ new media workers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nuj-newmedia/

Editorial Photographers – EPUK http://www.epuk.org/

National Union of Journalists NUJ http://www.nuj.org.uk/

NUJ – Freelance, newsletter http://www.freelancenews.org/

British Institute of Professional Photography http://www.bipp.com/

Association of Photographers http://www.aophoto.co.uk/

Royal Photographic Society http://www.rps.org/

Bureau of Freelance Photographershttp://www.thebfp.com/

BETU Code of Practice for Submission of Programme Proposals

http://www.bectu.org.uk/resources/agree/agreecodep01.html

David Hoffman http://www.hoffmanphotos.demon.co.uk/

Nick Cobbing http://www.cobb-web.org/

Tash’s Main Pages http://tash.gn.apc.org

Tash’s ‘Events’ Blog http://tash_photo.blogspot.com/

Tash’s ‘Streaming’ Media http://tash.dns2go.com/

Tash’s Article on BBC 360 site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/360/360/MA196996?show=25&type=2

Tash’s Son (Southern Spain) http://members.fortunecity.com/alanlodge/orgiva/frameset.htm

Metropolitan Police Photographic and Graphics Services http://www.met.police.uk/so/graphics.htm

Crime Scene and Evidence Photographer’s Guide http://www.staggspublishing.com/index.html

Photography on the Web http://www.photographyontheweb.org/

Squall http://www.squall.co.uk/home.cfm

SchNews http://www.schnews.org.uk/

Urban75 http://www.urban75.com

Legal Defence & Monitoring Group LDMG http://www2.phreak.co.uk/ldmg/index.php

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Posted on 14 July 2002 by admin

nATo in Manchester

This is some of what i’m doing next week, all sounds very exciting. So, if you’re anywhere near Central Manchester please drop in, and I’ll see you there. A goodn’ perhaps………….

Blitz Festival Events

Events run from the 20th to the 28th July

Street Theatre: keep your ear to the ground:

http://www.beyondtv.org/nato

nATo is a banner organisation , bringing together artists working on a broad spectrum of cultural,

social and political issues. We are dedicated to the production of spontaneous, independent and conscious public art.

Space Hijackers,

Surveillance Camera Players,

Buton Ghosts,

Fanclub,

Original Art Wankers,

Consumer Aliens,

Movement of the Imagination

and many more

Outdoor Opening party wiv moosic

Date: Saturday 20th July – starts midday

Location: Great Northern Square outide The Great Northern Railway Complex, Central Manchester

Moosical guests include

Ozomatli,

Steven Nancy,

Desolation Angels,

the Agents of Groove,

Valerie,

Panjit G [Asian Dub Foundation]

Huge Slide projections by Tash – Video projections by Beyond TV?

Agitate Art Exhibition

Date: 20 – 28 July

Location: Great Northern Railway Complex, Central Manchester

AgiTate – Is art the mirror by which we view the world around us, or is it the hammer that smashes the mirror?

The contributors to Agitate are in the main primarily activists and their work is an extension of their politics.

>>List of Artists and more INFO

Yeast Experience at the Green Room

Date: Wednesday 24th July

Location: Green Room Manchester

A Multimedia // Music event from the Yeast Collective from London. These guys have a very exciting vision of entertainment blending cutting edge Video projections, music and live perfomance.

Panjit G from Asian Dub Foundation will be Djing on the night.

Psychic Bread, Seth Tobocman and Beyondtv at the Green Room

Date: Saturday 27th July

Location: Green Room Manchester

Psychic bread are bringing a video and poetry performance night to the Green room. More details to follow.

Seth Tobocman from New York will be doing a slideshow and presentation on Art and Politics.

BeyondTV will start the evening with a series of social justice films from around the world and informal discussion.

disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this website are not necessarily shared by all groups or individuals who do

or may operate under the umbrella name nATo.We do not wish to encourage anyone to question the status quo, or to express opinions which question the legitimacy of this political/economic system.

Just put on a crash-helmet,get in bed, turn the TV on and stay put. (Go forth and usurp)

SchNEWS in brief news 364

BLITZED.

Blitz promises to be “a kick-ass anti-corporate extravaganza” to coincide with the Commonwealth Games being held in Manchester later this month.

Organised by NATO – that’s Northern Arts Tactical Offensive, the festival covers a week of shows, actions and events kicking off on Sat 20th July with an open air music event, and the opening of two exhibitions. One is AgiTATE being held in a spanking new shopping mall who failed in their bid to ban it once they realised what was happening! Throughout the week there will be film and multimedia events organised by Beyond TV. The week will end with a skate attack and critical mass plus political street theatre on Saturday 27th. NATO has also produced a spoof guide to the city to guide tourists to their events.During that week there will also be a GM trashing nearby, Manchester People’s open seminar for the Anti Commonwealth Games Coalition and lots of anti sweatshop actions.

For a full programme see http://www.nato.uk.net

Direct action magazine Loombreaker reports “the Commonwealth Games are being used to launch a new Corporate Manchester – a posh apartment playground for coke-sniffing yuppies, …. The cost of the games are astronomical – the stadium alone accounts for a cool £120 million – but you won’t hear too much about £80m of public money the council has committed to paying. So if you’re wondering why there are cutbacks in schools and housing, or where your local swimming pools and other public amenities have all gone when your council rents and tax are rising, there’s not much need to look any further really.”

BLITZ PRESS RELEASE

20-28 July, Manchester

FESTIVAL OF RADICAL ART

1.VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITIONS

AgiTATE: Sat 20 – Sat 27 July- @ The Great Northern. [Units 25-28, 1st Floor, Great Northern Warehouse, Deansgate] [open 12-7pm daily; Preview Fri 19July 6-8 pm]

An art show from the political underground. The perfect antidote to the corporate spectacle of the Commonwealth Games. From the untrained street style of Manchester graffitti artists to the internationally renowned work of cartoonist Seth Tobocman, AgiTATE sets out to question where passive observation ends and participation begins, in the art world and everyday life. The seminal collage work of Gee Vaucher will feature alongside contemporary installation artists, photographers, painters and performance artists. These include Mark Cooley from the US, Steven Dickie from Dundee with his pirate radio station and an explosive performance form Jackofficer! Curated by Jai Redman (UHC Collective, with guest curators Kwong Lee and Helen Knowles (Radio Halo)

Participating artists are: Angel, Mark Cooley, Steven Dickie, Jo Hudson, The Jackofficers, Yuen Fong Ling, Alan Lodge, Monkeyboy, Polyp, Duncan Ross, Squall, Seth Tobocman, Jon Trayner, UHC Collectie, Gee Vaucher, Andy Wake, Justine Young.

Complete image gallery of work available on request

BODY POLITIC: Sun 21 – Sun 28 July @ The Greenroom, in the Workspace [open 4-11pm daily]

An exhibition by 12 contemporary artists tackling issues around sex and the gendered body.

2. OPEN-AIR MUSIC EVENT: Sat 20 July @ Great Northern Square [12 pm-10pm]

To kick off AgiTate, with the finest punk-pop of Stephen Nancy, Desolation Angels and Valerie. Guest appearances from Bristol- hip hop Freakbeat Reactor, ska from Bradford’s Rebelation, Moco and Skam. With DJ’s Phrush, Jenny Chan, Language Lab, Black Lodge and Spy Base. Plus Spellbound (Mo Wax) and spoken word performance. Running in parallel with an interactive installation “RAMP” by artists Stu Bentley, Victor Macmohn and Chris Hamer and graffitti art comp. hosted by Temper.

3.FILM, PERFORMANCE AND INTERACTIVE ARTS: 24-27 July @ Green Room + The Great Northern

Wed 24 July @ Green room [8-12am]

Yeast Experience a multimedia / music event from London’s Yeast Collective, blending cutting edge video projections, music and live performance. Plus Panjit G from Asian Dub Foundation on the decks. BEyONdTV co-ordinate.

Thu 25 July + Fri 26 July @ Great Northern, in a downstairs unit; [5-8pm]

Undercurrents and BEyONdTV host inspirational alternative media and films. Full programme available from July on http://www.beyondtv.org

Thu 25 July @ Green room [8- 12am]

A special Blitz edition of Vaudeville, covering the theme of desire with film and performance art.

Sat 27 July @ Green room [8-2am]

Psychicbread and guests-mixing video, poetry by Mark Gwynne Jones and other performance. Feat. New York’s most renowned underground cartoonist Seth Tobocman performing a multi-media slideshow with music from Cybec Blood. BEyONdTV co-ordinate.

Agi Tate: Mike [t] 07984 286608 // Body Politic: Angel [t] 07949 493308 [e] angel@the-red-room.org // Music: Fadima [t] 07984 44 3479 [e]wundland01@hotmail.com // BEyONdTV events: Mick Fuzz [t] 01865 203661 [e] info@beyondtv.org // Vaudeville: Tam [t] 226 0364 // NATO for overall BLITZ info: [e] tacticalarts@yahoo.co.uk [t]0161 226 7192

THE BLITZ FESTIVAL HAS BEEN ORGANISED BY THE NORTHERN ARTS TACTICAL OFFENSIVE, A BANNER ARTS ORGANISATION DEDICATED TO THE PRODUCTION OF SPONTANEOUS, CONSCIOUS AND PUBLIC ART.

http://www.nato.uk.net

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Posted on 13 July 2002 by admin

nATo in Manchester

This is some of what i’m doing next week, all sounds very exciting. So, if you’re anywhere near Central Manchester please drop in, and I’ll see you there. A goodn’ perhaps………….

Blitz Festival Events

Events run from the 20th to the 28th July

Street Theatre: keep your ear to the ground:

http://www.beyondtv.org/nato

Space Hijackers,

Surveillance Camera Players,

Buton Ghosts,

Fanclub,

Original Art Wankers,

Consumer Aliens,

Movement of the Imagination

and many more

Outdoor Opening party wiv moosic

Date: Saturday 20th July – starts midday

Location: Great Northern Square outide The Great Northern Railway Complex, Central Manchester

Moosical guests include

Ozomatli,

Steven Nancy,

Desolation Angels,

the Agents of Groove,

Valerie,

Panjit G [Asian Dub Foundation]

Huge Slide projections by Tash – Video projections by Beyond TV?

Agitate Art Exhibition

Date: 20 – 28 July

Location: Great Northern Railway Complex, Central Manchester

>>List of Artists and more INFO

Yeast Experience at the Green Room

Date: Wednesday 24th July

Location: Green Room Manchester

Psychic Bread, Seth Tobocman and Beyondtv at the Green Room

Date: Saturday 27th July

Location: Green Room Manchester

SchNEWS in brief news 364

BLITZED.

BLITZ PRESS RELEASE

Complete image gallery of work available on request

BODY POLITIC: Sun 21 – Sun 28 July @ The Greenroom, in the Workspace [open 4-11pm daily]

An exhibition by 12 contemporary artists tackling issues around sex and the gendered body.

THE BLITZ FESTIVAL HAS BEEN ORGANISED BY THE NORTHERN ARTS TACTICAL OFFENSIVE, A BANNER ARTS ORGANISATION DEDICATED TO THE PRODUCTION OF SPONTANEOUS, CONSCIOUS AND PUBLIC ART.

http://www.nato.uk.net

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Posted on 13 July 2002 by admin

I’ve recently set up a space on the BBC website, used for community purposes called BBC 360. If interested, you can view the front page for these at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/360/360/

They say:

* ———————————- *

Welcome to 360 – Answers to world problems, provided by you

360 is the BBC’s community-based, positive news website that features your solutions to world problems. It is written, edited and directed by you – the BBC provides the forum and the possibility that BBC television and radio will take up your ideas.

360 seeks positive news stories about the four key world problems identified by the United Nations as priorities for a civilised world:

The Environment – Poverty – Preventable Disease – Conflict

These problems will only be solved by grass-roots action – no idea, project or solution is too small to feature on 360. Whatever your project, we want to hear about it.”

* ———————————- *

Sounds right up my street!! Not sure how effective, at meeting and informing other, but am giving it a go.

My own ‘front page’ within thier set up, can be seen at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/360/360/U196996

My ‘articles page there, is at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/360/360/MA196996?show=25&type=2

Here are some examples of the ‘thread’ of discussion, it has caused :>

A771996 – On Being Watched – for having concerns for the planet

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/360/360/F84769?thread=191008&post=2190453#p2180537

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/360/360/F84769?thread=191008&post=2190496#p2190496

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/360/360/F92543?thread=192046

Subject: Excellent!

Tash,

I take my hat off to you! A long (very long) entry that obviously benefits form a great deal of research and experience. I confess to not having read *all* of what you’ve written (yet), but I’m glad that we can have this kind of perspective on site. All things need to be looked at from different angles/perspectives if we’re ever going to be able to get somewhere near the *truth* of a matter, and what we’re told daily through our main (traditional) media channels, I feel we can trust less and less to provide us with something like the whole picture – there’s too much at stake politically, and too much financial vested interest. Groundwork like yours is invaluable – it goes towards balancing out one-sided information.

As a solution, in your opinion, should we try and work within the ‘establishment’, expose the fraud and the clearly undemocratic practices, to improve thing from within? Or do you feel that the travelling life, the ‘alternative’, that which attempts to exist beyond the clutches of mainstream society, is an answer. And is this life possible when we consider how the perceived threat has been dealt with in the past (Battle of the Beanfields etc)?

Very interesting entry, sir.

Oh, and will you be going to Glastonbury this year? £100 quid a ticket’s a bit steep, mind.

Sam.

Subject: Excellent!

Interesting stuff Tash. I’ve only managed a cursory glance, but it’s headed for the printer as I type. I only managed one appearance at Twyford – must have been one of the final weeks, in fact. It was early on in the CJB season…

I thought you may like to quote this:

“Paranoia is a state of heightened awareness. Most people are persecuted beyond their wildest delusions.”

Claude Steiner “The Radical Psychiatry Manifesto”

Not 100% accurate maybe, but a killer quote none-the-less.

Frogbit.

Entry: On Being Watched – for having concerns for the planet – A771996

Author: Tash – U196996

This is a sketch around some issues of concern to me. All it appears, for being associated with groups of people, experimenting in trying to make a more fulfiled life for themselves. I am grateful for your comments. Alan Lodge

Subject: A771996 – On Being Watched – for having concerns for the planet

by Ashley

You raise some really fascinating points which affect each and every single one of us. Is there a way we can combat this, claiming back our right to privacy, or is it a lost cause?

Subject: A771996 – On Being Watched – for having concerns for the planet

by Raphael

Hello Tash and Ashley,

This was very interesting although I’m afraid I didn’t finish it as it is so long. However, for me it raises all kinds of questions, probably mostly due to my age, which I realise is somewhat advanced for someone on a site like this. I thought I could detect some paranoia in with the reporting. This would be quite understandable of course.

However, may I recommend that the article is shortened a little — or perhaps divided up so that it is a little more palatable? I didn’t even get to read what the solution suggested was because my brain blanked out. Which is not, I think, the idea!

Apologies if this sounds critical; it is just that if the site is to be accessible, the articles on solutions may need to be a little simpler and perhaps more like Frogbit’s “Saving the World from your Living Room”.

Regards,

Raphael

Subject: A771996 – On Being Watched – for having concerns for the planet

by Sam

I know what you mean, Raphael. Another thing to bear in mind, though, is that some folk temporarily lose access to the Net. They might not have it at home and therefore rely on a connection at school. When term time ends and holidays begin, maybe a cyber cafe is the only connection option. I think in the case of Tash, it’s quite likely that he’s off travelling somewhere documenting fellow travellers – it is the festival season after all. I’m sure he’ll be back – we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Write a reply to this Posting

Subject: A771996 – On Being Watched – for having concerns for the planet

by Tash

Is there anything we can do?

Well unsure, but i’ve been doing what i can. thing about ‘dark corners’, is that they are less dark, if you shine a light in them.

Police and authorities continue to watch the citizen, in case it does something wrong. Laws continually being drafted to lawfully enable this to occur. But law is not supposed to be one sided.

In Pulic Order situations, i think that ‘they’ often break more laws than ‘us’. hence photographer, and tape recording to demonstrate this, to a proper standard of evidence. I tell you now, they hate it and look for every device to stop me.

Bit one sided if you ask me. but this citizen is into sticking up for himself. thanks for your observations. Am in the process of posting another shed load of material. Please anyone, feel free to comment as you like.

Subject: A771996 – On Being Watched – for having concerns for the planet

by Maggy

Glad you’re back Tash

Subject: A771996 – On Being Watched – for having concerns for the planet

by Tash

Hello,

Want to reply to the comments raised on my piece. First, I’m grateful to receive any comments, positive or negative. One of the reason I wanted to post, was for exactly this reason.

No, I have not posted and just run away! I have been away!

Being a traveller, I travel

I cannot be next to a computer, as often as some, but more frequently than many of my friends.

Oh, there is another reason, I find the layout here really complicated. just me and my abilities perhaps, but still remains a fact. Although i’ve checked your site out a couple of times, since my original posting, this saturday, something became clear to me, and I suddenly realised that there were postings to read. So i’m here now, and have book-marked the posting page. [if it doesn’t move about].

With some sites, an email notification gets sent on reply to such matters. Can we not have one of those here?

I take on board the length crit. Since I’m about to post another shed-load. I will attempt to do this now, in a number of sections.

Tell me how i’m doing.[ tash@gn.apc.org ]

BBC Maggi – help thread

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/360/360/F84769?thread=191008&post=2190804#p2190804

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Posted on 13 July 2002 by admin

Think this is some of what roddy means. Spook tools, from the dirty tricks dept….

Hard to determine though, of it’s some teen with a baseball hat, or, a real spook…..

Scary though eh?

data interception by remote transmission :> http://www.codexdatasystems.com/menu.html

Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Information Age – US Executive Order :> http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011016-12.html

NET Observe Spy Software :> http://www.spy-software-solutions.com/net-observe.htm

iDefence :> http://www.idefense.com/flashintro.html

EU’s secret network to spy on anti-capitalist protesters

The Independent

By Stephen Castle in Brussels

20 August 2001

Leading article: Police co-operation must not trample on protesters’ rights European leaders have ordered police and intelligence agencies to co-ordinate their efforts to identify and track the anti-capitalist demonstrators whose violent protests at recent international summits culminated in the shooting dead by police of a young protester at the Genoa G8 meeting last month.

The new measures clear the way for protesters travelling between European Union countries to be subjected to an unprecedented degree of surveillance.

Confidential details of decisions taken by Europe’s interior ministers at talks last month show that the authorities will use a web of police and judicial links to keep tabs on the activities and whereabouts of protesters. Europol, the EU police intelligence-sharing agency based in The Hague that was set up to trap organised criminals and drug traffickers, is likely to be given a key role.

The plan has alarmed civil rights campaigners, who argue that personal information on people who have done no more than take part in a legal demonstration may be entered into a database and exchanged.

Calls for a new Europe-wide police force to tackle the threat from hardline anti-capitalists were led after the Genoa summit by Germany’s Interior Minister, Otto Schily. Germany has long pushed for the creation of a Europe-wide crime-fighting agency modelled on the FBI.

Germany’s EU partners rejected Mr Schily’s call, judging that a new force to combat political protest movements was too controversial, but ministers agreed to extend the measures that can be taken under existing powers. Central to the new push is the secretive Article 36 committee (formerly known as the K4 committee) and the Schengen Information System, both of which allow for extensive contact and data sharing between police forces.

Under the new arrangements, European governments and police chiefs will:

· Set up permanent contact points in every EU country to collect, analyse and exchange information on protesters;

· Create a pool of liaison officers before each summit staffed by police from countries from which “risk groups” originate;

· Use “police or intelligence officers” to identify “persons or groups likely to pose a threat to public order and security”;

· Set up a task force of police chiefs to organise “targeted training” on violent protests.

The new measures will rely on two main ways of exchanging police information. The Schengen Information System, which provides basic information, and a supporting network called Sirene – Supplementary Information Request at the National Entry. This network (of which Britain is a member) allows pictures, fingerprints and other information to be sent to police or immigration officials once a suspect enters their territory. Each country already has a Sirene office with established links to EU and Nordic law enforcement agencies.

Civil liberties campaigners are dismayed by the plan. Tony Bunyan, editor of Statewatch magazine, said: “This will give the green light to Special Branch and MI5 to put under surveillance people whose activities are entirely democratic.”

Nicholas Busch, co-ordinator of the Fortress Europe network on civil liberties issues, added: “People who have done nothing against the law ought to be able to feel sure they are not under surveillance … By criminalising whole political and social scenes you fuel confrontation and conflict.”

Thomas Mathieson, professor of sociology of law at the University of Oslo, said police could have access to “very private information” about people’s religion, sex lives and politics. “It is a very dangerous situation from the civil liberties point of view,” he said.

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Posted on 13 July 2002 by admin

I dunno, just interested to know that this sort of thing goes on …….

Data Interception by Remote Transmission

D.I.R.T.TM – Data Interception by Remote Transmission is a powerful remote control monitoring tool that allows stealth monitoring of all activity on one or more target computers simultaneously from a remote command center.

No physical access is necessary. Application also allows agents to remotely seize and secure digital evidence prior to physically entering suspect premises.

Codex Data Systems, Inc. will provide our D.I.R.T. software for FREE to all US law enforcement agencies, US Intelligence agencies and US Military agencies to aid in the apprehension or identification of the persons responsible for the events

of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington, D.C.

Your agency’s use of our D.I.R.T. software will remain classified by us

and will not be advertised, disclosed publicly or disclosed to any third party.

Please contact our CEO directly to arrange the expeditious transfer

of our technology to your agency.

Assisting the law enforcement community since June 6th, 1998

Requirements: Agency letterhead is required before information will be forwarded on this product. Sale is restricted to bona fide law enforcement, governmental and military agencies. Codex Data Systems, Inc. is the creator and sole source of this product.

http://www.codexdatasystems.com/menu.html

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Posted on 13 July 2002 by admin

These two articles, [Thanks Roddy !!] continue to show the thrust of the governments’ wish to ‘snoop’ on the citizen.

Although it’s already done widely, with various other ‘legal devices’ to justify action, RIP will now allow, for ‘Data Mining’ and ‘Crime Patern Analysis’.

This basicall, will provide alsorts of opertunities for mis-carrages of justice to occur. So much stress on the way. Am I entitled to discent? or must i always go around proving i’m not a criminal / terrorist / child and sheep molester.

Oh god! why are governments alway so worried about about the citizen under them? Is it something to do with ‘Vested Interest’ me thinks. Cant they go around trying to ‘represent us’ rather than trying to ‘keep us down’

Any advice on these matters, gratefully recieved.

ISPs face data interception deadline

17:03 Wednesday 10th July 2002

Matt Loney

From 1 August, ISPs in the UK will be required to be able to intercept your data. Yet the Home Office has failed to explain how they will be reimbursed. And the rules mean that criminals will easily be able to avoid interception

ISPs across the UK will have to start intercepting and storing electronic communications including emails, faxes and Web surfing data from 1 August, but there still appear to be glaring loopholes in the legislation.

Not only has the Home Office still failed to tell ISPs how they will be compensated for maintaining their interception capabilities, but the measures, which the government said were introduced to combat terrorism and organised crime, only apply to large ISPs. Any criminal organisation wishing to avoid interception simply has to find an ISP that has fewer than 10,000 customers.

The interception capability is mandated by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which was introduced to give police and other law enforcement authorities the same powers to intercept digital communications as they already possess to intercept telephone calls and letters. On 1 August, the RIP (Maintenance of Interception Capability) Order 2002 is due to come into force.

Several classes of communications service providers are exempt from the regulations: those which do not intend to supply services to more than 10,000 people in the UK, and financial institutions such as banking, insurance and investment houses.

Not every big ISP will have to provide an interception capability from day one, but if they are told by police or other law enforcement officers that an interception has been authorised, they have one working day to provide a mechanism to do so. Furthermore, they must ensure that the intercepted data is transmitted in real time to the person who applied for the warrant

Each service provider must be able to simultaneously intercept the communications of up to 1 in every 10,000 people who use its service.

But with only weeks to go, ISPs say they have still not been told how they will be reimbursed for the cost of intercepting communications data. A spokesperson for the ISP Association said, “We have not been provided too much detail (on costs). There are still a lot of issues that have to be resolved.”

Part of the problem, said the spokesman, is that the new regulations are also intertwined with the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, which says that ISPs and telcos have to store communications data.

“They are producing a code of practice that lays out types of data that should be retained and how long it should be retained for,” said the spokesman.

The trouble, is, he said, that for ISPs to install all the capabilities will cost a lot of money: “Dealing with the two laws will have a big impact on cost and the Government has to provide guidance.” Costs will come from storage, staff time, new management processes, setup and running costs, said the spokesman, and will vary because each ISP is likely to have a different method of intercepting and storing the data and managing access.

A Home Office spokesperson said, “arrangements will be put in place to ensure they (ISPs) will receive fair refunds for costs incurred,” but could not provide details.

Claire Walker, a solicitor with city law firm Olswang, who specialises in e-commerce, said part of the problem is that the Home Office does not have a technical perspective. “They tend to say to ISPs, ‘tell us what is involved,’ and then the ISPs say, ‘no, you tell us exactly what you want first and then we’ll tell you what is involved,'” said Walker. “It is likely that individual ISPs will reach individual agreements with the Home Office on reimbursement.”

Tim Snape, who chairs the law enforcement group ISPA, told ZDNet UK earlier this year that the costs of intercepting could, in combination with the costs of logging data, be crippling. “The actual data acquisition costs could be low,” he said, “but the costs for data retention, processing, hand-over, billing, management and regulatory compliance will all be very high.”

Although RIPA has a provision for ISPs to recover their costs, said Snape at the time, this does not mean profit. “We don’t want to be seen profiting from crime, so we have asked for just cost recovery,” he said. “But because this means there will be a requirement to demonstrate costs, there will be a requirement to audit so the process of cost recovery will incur its own costs.”

Sources close to the negotiations say it has been suggested to the Home Office that the compensation to industry should merely cover the storage costs.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2118894,00.html

RIPA demands push up ISP costs

16:41 Tuesday 9th July 2002

Paul Stevens, Olswang

Overshadowed by last month’s furore over public authorities’ access to e-mail and telephone data, another set of new RIPA rules is due to hit the communications industry next month

From 1st August, ISPs and telcos will be obliged to maintain certain minimum levels of interception capacity in order to assist law enforcement agencies. The cost to the industry of implementing these controversial measures, however, remains unclear.

Background

These new obligations are contained in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Maintenance of Interception Capability) Order 2002 (the “Order”). This ‘fleshes out’ provisions under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (‘RIPA’) which give the Home Secretary power to order a provider of public telecoms services to maintain a “reasonable” level of intercept capacity to enable interception warrants to be complied with. Consultation with industry on this issue took place between December 2000 and August 2001.

ISPs are expressing their confusion over the new obligations and how they will be recompensed. The actual obligations are as follows.

The new obligations in more detail

The Order imposes new legal obligations on providers of public telecommunications services, although service providers who do not (or do not intend to) provide their service to over 10,000 users in the UK are exempt, as are providers who limit their services to the banking, insurance, investment or other financial services sectors.

The ‘intercept capacity’ which service providers are required to provide is as follows:

A mechanism for implementing interceptions within one working day of the service provider being informed that the interception has been authorised;

Where the service provider serves more than 10,000 people, to enable the simultaneous interception of communications of up to 1 in 10, 000 of those users;

To ensure the interception of all communications and related traffic data authorised by the warrant and their simultaneous transmission to the law enforcement agency in question;

To ensure the intercepted communication and data can be correlated;

To ensure the handover interface complies with any requirements stipulated by the Home Secretary (these should generally be in line with agreed industry standards);

To ensure filtering to provide isolated traffic data, associated with the relevant account where reasonable;

To ensure any protection applied to the intercepted communication can be removed;

To minimise the risk of “tipping-off” the interception subject or other unauthorised persons about the interception. Where a service provider is unhappy with the extent or compliance cost of an interception notice, a referral can be made to the National Technical Advisory Board (‘TAB’), a body comprised of industry as well as Government representatives. Non-compliance with these interception obligations carries civil penalties, including issue of an injunction.

Cost implications

The cost burden on the telecoms industry of implementing the new measures is potentially substantial. RIPA imposes a duty on the Secretary of State to ensure that a service provider receives a “fair contribution” towards the cost of complying with an interception warrant or maintaining intercept capability. A sum of £20 million has been earmarked for communications provider support for the three years from 2001 to 2004 in connection with broader RIPA obligations, of which £14 million was spent last year. Further consultations are due to take place between the Government, industry and the TAB on the precise costs to the industry of complying with these new rules but no timetable has yet been set.

The bigger picture

RIPA, which has been on the statute book since July 2000, has been the source of enormous controversy since the proposals for reform of the interception regime were first published three years ago. Recently, in a much-publicised climb-down, the Home Secretary David Blunkett withdrew a proposal to extend the range of public authorities with power to access details of people’s communications under the Act.

Although the Act received Royal Assent nearly two years ago, its wide-ranging provisions have been brought into force by a series of statutory instruments since then. The most recent include an Interception of Communications Code of Practice which came into force on 1 July 2002 and which outlines the duties of law enforcement agencies with regard to interception of telephone and internet communications for national security and crime prevention purposes. Codes of Practice regulating the use of other covert surveillance techniques are also due to come into force on 1st August.

The information contained in this bulletin is intended as a general overview of the subjects featured and detailed specialist advice should always be taken before taking or refraining from taking any action

http://techupdate.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t481-s2118813,00.html

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Posted on 12 July 2002 by admin

“My mother used to say that there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet. She’s now in a maximum security twilight home in Australia.”

Dame Edna Everage

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

The Bloggers Manifesto

1. Life is uncensored.

2. You have no right to judge me.

3. If you don’t like what you see, look elsewhere.

4. I love talking about my life.

5. I love writing about other people’s lives.

6. I will post whenever I feel like posting.

7. I don’t have to blog every memory.

8. You don’t have to agree with everything I say.

9. I egosurf Daypop, Google, and Blogdex nightly.

10. I share what I want to share.

11. I like linking to folks with concerns.

12. Blogging is theraputic.

13. Pictures of myself are not obligatory.

14. I visit every site in my blog regularly.

15. I won’t post for the sake of posting.

16. I have a life outside of blogging.

17. I have ambition to learn more blogging tools.

18. I may criticize other bloggers, not harass them.

19. I have the right to revise a post.

20. When blogging becomes a chore, I’ll quit doing it.

21. I’ve given something back to the blogging community.

22. If I want to complain about something, I will.

23. If I want to praise something, I will.

24. I am not the best blogger on the planet.

25. I don’t have to explain myself to you.

Where do I sign?

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

After 30 years of campaigning, and general stress. The Home Sec has finally announced the re-classification of Cannabis from B to C. A classification, invented under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1972. This will enable the police to ‘do’ less to the individual.

HOWEVER

It is not legal, and is still thought of a moral wrong…..

’tis better than nothing, but we have no-where near won an argument and got what we want.

Following on from here, have prepared a spread of press, over the last year, to show the progress of all this.

Still, gotta be worth, lighting up a spliff today to celebrate some movement though! The most liberal change in a generation.

Oh, by the way, this is just an ‘announcement of change’. The actual change, well, not until NEXT JULY 2003.

Oh god! the fight continues ………

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

Police retain discretion over arrest for cannabis use

Cannabis is reclassified, but the Home Secretary refuses to introduce reforms to the regulations on heroin and ecstasy

By Ian Burrell, Home Affairs Correspondent

Independent

11 July 2002

Dopesmokers who had rolled a celebratory joint in honour of the Home Secretary finally relaxing Britain’s cannabis laws may have spluttered in frustration yesterday when David Blunkett decided possession of the drug should remain an arrestable offence.

Although the Home Secretary went ahead as expected with his proposal to reclassify cannabis from Class B to Class C, he appeared to have reacted to criticisms that he was “going soft on drugs”.

And so instead of implementing a blanket policy treating marijuana possession as a non-arrestable offence, he announced a hybrid system, under which police could hold some people caught with the drug, in certain circumstances.

Those who smoke cannabis near a school or repeatedly light up in a public place where other people object to their drug use could still find themselves being marched to the police station.

The caveats will please police officers who have complained of having joints waved defiantly in their faces by drug users in Brixton, south London, where the Metropolitan Police has been piloting a softer stance on cannabis.

But they will also allow police to retain a considerable degree of discretion in dealing with cannabis users. Welcoming Mr Blunkett’s announcement yesterday, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said: “The retention of the police power of arrest will enable the police to have greater flexibility in dealing with incidents on the street.”

Such powers will worry supporters of cannabis decriminalisation, who would point to a recent study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that appeared to show a minority of officers were already pursuing something of a personal crusade against marijuana.

The study found that 3 per cent of police were responsible for 20 per cent of cannabis possession arrests and that some police saw it as their duty to help rid society of all drugs.

Mr Blunkett said yesterday Acpo would soon issue national guidelines to police forces, explaining the definition of the “aggravating circumstances” that would make cannabis possession arrestable.

Drugs agencies hope the guidance will help to create a level playing field and end the “postcode lottery” that results from different approaches being taken to the drug in neighbouring police divisions. Mr Blunkett said the guidelines would “ensure that in the vast majority of cases officers will confiscate the drug and issue a warning”.

If this is the case, the changes will have a noticeable effect on the policing of cannabis, which in the year 2000 led to 75,000 arrests for possession, with some offenders being fined and a small minority imprisoned.

Last night Roger Howard, chief executive of the charity DrugScope, pointed out that even after reclassification people could face being sent to jail for up to two years for “simple possession”.

He also voiced concerns over Mr Blunkett’s proposals for tougher measures against those involved in the supply of cannabis. Mr Blunkett said he would consider a new offence of supplying the drug to children and would retain a maximum sentence of up to 14 years for dealing, even after downgrading the drug to Class C.

Mr Howard said people who supplied the drug to friends or grew cannabis plants may find themselves facing a custodial sentence.

Yesterday in Brixton, where police have piloted the idea of relaxing the laws on cannabis, there were mixed views on the project’s success.

An unnamed police officer claimed the project had not worked and said that school children who were smoking cannabis with impunity were no longer being arrested and referred to drug workers.

But Bashir Ahmed, who runs a carpet shop, said the change in the law would cut crime. He called for legalised cannabis cafés to end the street dealing.

Other commentators warned that the reclassification of cannabis should not disguise the potential dangers of the drug.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the softening of the law should “not make a blind bit of difference to school drug policies”.

The changes to the cannabis laws were accompanied by a refusal to introduce reform of the regulations on heroin and ecstasy. In spite of recommendations to the contrary by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, Mr Blunkett refused to reclassify ecstasy as a class B drug and rejected the idea of controlled “shooting galleries” for injecting drug users.

Although it was overshadowed by the cannabis reforms, the refusal to provide safe injecting rooms will be a severe disappointment to drug treatment professionals.

The introduction of such a scheme in Australia reportedly led to 17 drug users being resuscitated after overdosing in the first month of the project’s operation. Supporters of the scheme claim that without such supervised facilities such people might have died.

Drug experts were also angry that Mr Blunkett, as a politician, chose to dismiss the reclassification of ecstasy [which was also backed by a review of drugs laws by the independent Police Foundation] rather than allow a decision to be taken by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

Narcotics: how they are classified

Class A: (The most harmful category). Includes heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, and amphetamines (speed) if prepared for injection. Maximum sentence for dealing is life and seven years for possession.

Class B: (An intermediate category). Includes amphetamines and barbiturates. The maximum sentence for dealing is 14 years in prison plus a fine, and for possession it is five years plus fine.

Class C: (Least harmful). Includes anabolic steroids, anti-depressants and growth hormones. In July next year this will be joined by cannabis and cannabis resin, which are currently Class B. Maximum sentences for dealing in Class C substances are to be upped from five years to 14. The maximum term for possession is two years in jail.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=313981

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

Decline and fall of ‘tsar’ stripped of his power

By Ian Burrell

Independent

11 July 2002

When David Blunkett was appointed Home Secretary in May last year, one of his first decisions was to axe the role of drugs tsar.

Keith Hellawell, the first and probably last incumbent in the post, had been appointed with a fanfare by Tony Blair in 1997 but found himself unceremoniously dumped. To Mr Blunkett, the cross-departmental role of the “UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator” had served its purpose. The Home Secretary wanted the Home Office to take back responsibility for drugs so he could pursue his own plans for reform of the laws. Mr Hellawell, who was retained in a part-time international advisory role, claiming that he no longer wanted a full-time position, was marginalised.

Commenting on the former drugs tsar’s resignation yesterday, Roger Howard, chief executive of the influential charity DrugScope, and Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, described Mr Hellawell as “out of touch”.

It was a sad indictment of a man who had laid the building blocks of the Government’s drugs policy.

The former chief constable of West Yorkshire was responsible for drawing up a 10-year drugs strategy, the first real attempt to take a long-term view of the problem.

The radical approach was responsible for focusing public attention on the subject of drugs and raising its profile within the political arena.

Mr Hellawell, who reported directly to the Prime Minister and earned £106,000 a year, won admirers within the drugs prevention industry as he lobbied hard for extra resources for treatment centres and information programmes.

His most important legacy was in helping to drive forward a big increase in drugs education in British schools, aimed at reducing long-term demand for illicit substances.

But the long-term approach did little to endear him to government political strategists, who despaired at the lack of tangible success. Stories began appearing, suggesting that unnamed ministers believed that the drugs tsar should be deposed.

When Mr Blunkett arrived at the Home Office, he switched Mr Hellawell to a two-days-a-week advisory role on international drugs issues. Drugs experts have been at a loss to explain his achievements in this role.

An exasperated Mr Hellawell tendered his resignation at the end of last month, apparently asking for the decision to be kept secret. But yesterday he exacted his revenge on Mr Blunkett in a piece of news management that must have impressed even New Labour’s spin doctors.

He revealed his resignation on national radio hours before the Home Secretary was to make his most important pronouncement on drugs policy.

Mr Hellawell said Mr Blunkett’s new policy would “virtually be decriminalisation of cannabis and this is giving out the wrong message”. He continued: “Cannabis is simply not a sensible substance for people to take. There are strains of cannabis that are extremely powerful, hallucinogenic and very dangerous. It’s moving further towards decriminalisation than any other country in the world.”

Iain Duncan Smith said Mr Hellawell’s departure was “a personal blow for the Prime Minister and punches a huge hole in the Government’s drugs policies”.

But Danny Kushlick, director of pro-legalisation campaign group Transform, said he was “delighted to see the back of Mr Hellawell” and added: “His statement that the UK has gone further in decriminalising drugs than anywhere else in the world shows just how ignorant he is of what is happening outside his office. In fact, half a dozen European countries have decriminalised possession of all drugs.”

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=313980

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

The war may be over, but Mr Blunkett has become confused about drugs

Independent

Leader

11 July 2002

Cannabis is by far the most commonly used illegal recreational drug in Britain; indeed, it is probably less harmful than tobacco or alcohol. The grounds for believing it provides a “gateway” to harder drugs are, at best, anecdotal. There is little evidence that its use is crime-related in the same way as, say, heroin or crack cocaine. Public opinion seems increasingly at ease with the idea of liberalising the law. Thoughtful Conservatives such as Peter Lilley have advocated allowing people the freedom to use a substance that will do little harm to them and none to anyone else. Legalising cannabis, in other words, is unlikely to mean the end of civilisation.

Of course the Government has never shared that view, and during its long “war on drugs” set its face resolutely against a change in the law. Both the present Home Secretary, David Blunkett, and his predecessor Jack Straw relished every chance to act tough on drugs. It was an easy way to ward off the allegations of liberalism that, sadly, seem to scare this government so much. The appointment of the absurdly named “drugs tsar”, Keith Hellawell, was the apogee of the authoritarian phase of policy.

Thankfully, Mr Hellawell has now departed, having achieved little during his tenure. And Mr Blunkett has announced to the House of Commons his intention to reclassify cannabis from a class B to a class C drug. That is a welcome start to the modernisation of our approach to drugs. But Mr Blunkett has sent out a contradictory signal by retaining severe criminal sanctions for trading in cannabis (a maximum 14-year jail sentence). He also seems unduly keen on allowing the police virtually all their old powers of confiscation. So much so, in fact, that special laws will have to be passed to make blowing dope smoke at a policeman an offence and thus delaying the changes on cannabis for a year. And by insisting that “all drugs are harmful”, with the clear implication that all drugs are equally harmful, Mr Blunkett leaves himself open to ridicule.

In a further inconsistency, he has also set his face against declassifying ecstasy, which must rival cannabis for popularity, and again, with some tragic and high-profile exceptions, is widely used without harm. Most regrettable, though, is the Home Secretary’s rejection of safe injection rooms (so-called “shooting galleries”) for heroin users, a measure that has saved many lives where it has been tried, for example in Australia.

Whatever the public made of Mr Blunkett’s old policy, at least they knew where they were; now policy is a total mess. A modern government that felt more self-confident would seek an approach that balanced personal freedom with the need to reduce crime and to prevent people using the drugs that really do screw them up. Harm reduction was alluded to by Mr Blunkett in his statement, but it is clear that the main focus is still on drugs as a criminal rather than a health problem. Yet Britain has some of the strictest laws on drugs in Europe and the worst drugs problem.

Mr Blunkett has chosen to ignore the pleas of many of the charities dedicated to coping with the effects of drug abuse. No wonder then, that instead of clarifying the Government’s attitude and offering some hope to the victims of drug abuse and their friends and families, Mr Blunkett has simply left us confused. The Government’s policy on drugs has become more befuddled than the most dedicated aficionado of skunk.

http://argument.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/story.jsp?story=313952

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

Drug culture has invaded Middle England

Now I’m expecting my neighbours to come round and ask to borrow a cup of speed

By Mark Steel

Independent

11 July 2002

Now that Keith Hellawell has resigned, he’ll need looking after for a while. You must be extremely sensitive when coming down from a five-year-long trip in which you were so removed from reality that you believed you were a tsar. Like most of the people raging against the lowering of dope to a class C drug, he suffers from the hallucination that he’s an expert on the effects of this substance he’s proud never to have taken, whereas the millions who have taken it know nothing about it. Then he wonders why no one took him seriously.

If you’re going to have a drugs tsar, surely it should be someone who could give useful advice, such as “I wouldn’t touch that skunk knocking around south London at the moment. Wait till the weekend and there’ll be some cracking grass round at Dave’s house by Saturday.”

Nothing could be more hopeless than his strategy of trying to tell everyone not to take drugs on account of the misery they cause. The reason people smoke dope is because it’s enjoyable. If it only caused misery, you wouldn’t need a tsar to warn you off it. You don’t need an official to warn everyone not to stick their head in a nest of wasps because no one feels the urge to do it. So his message wasn’t listened to because it was “Don’t try anything that you’ve heard might be enjoyable. There’s no need to seek pleasure, as you can get just as much enjoyment from boredom as you can from fun. When your friends come home ‘stoned’ they might look as if they’ve had a good time, but there’s nothing like the satisfaction of completing a giant dot-to-dot puzzle or tracing a picture of a cathedral. After all, who do you want to identify with: drug-taking musicians and DJs, or clean-living icons such as Michael Buerk and quizmaster Robert Robertson?”

One expert on yesterday’s news claimed the new policy was dangerous because although dope isn’t addictive, it “can be a gateway drug for people with addictive personalities”. In other words, the fact it isn’t addictive is what’s wrong with it. If only it was addictive people would stick with it, but because it isn’t, these addictive types will seek something else. And you could say the same about lettuce, a frighteningly accessible “gateway salad item”.

Dope is so widespread now that if you’re under 60, you can’t believe the sort of stories you used to get, that “apparently, there was a boy in Dartford, he smoked a puff of that marijooana and now he thinks he’s an apple and they can’t get him down from his uncle’s tree.”

Recently, my proper middle-aged neighbours had a party. I prepared to be on my best behaviour but within five minutes the garden was barely visible through a cloud of dope smoke. The nice woman over the road with an alarmingly tidy fish pond told me: “The thing is, darling, we were brought up in the Sixties – with all the stuff we took, it’s a wonder we’re still alive. Especially my husband – he was a roadie for Led Zeppelin.” Now I’m expecting them to come and ask to borrow a cup of speed, “only until my normal delivery comes on Thursday”. Someone will go around giving away home-made marmalade, asking: “Which one would you like, dear? I’ve done some with orange, some with ginger, and some with Lebanese hash oil.”

Across Middle England, people are hanging out their washing and telling their neighbours: “We had a quiet weekend, Brian washed the car and mowed the lawn while I got a traditional Sunday lunch of a take-away curry and then we all got ripped on this gear Uncle Norman brought back from Denmark.”

Those people objecting to the new dope classification desperately argue that they’re concerned for our health. But convincing people to respond to health warnings depends on them being believable – snarling that “dope turns you crazy and leads to crack” is so obviously untrue it’s destined to have the same impact as parents who say “finish that bit of carrot or I’m cancelling our holiday”. And once someone knows you’re talking rubbish about one drug, why should they listen to anything you say about the others? It’s as dishonest as fox-hunters who claim hunting helps preserve foxes, or anti-abortionists who say their main concern is for the mental welfare of women. Because hardly anyone objects to all drugs. The problem comes when they’re not just taken to ease discomfort but to make people a little happier when there’s no initial pain. The disdain is driven almost by a spiritual objection to unearned pleasure.

But these people are fighting a losing battle, as by the time we’re one-year-old we’re introduced to drug culture, not only stuffed with Calpol but sat in front of four bears who always hug each other, have to hear everything twice before understanding what’s been said, wander around a field full of rabbits admiring clouds and end up with the munchies, devouring Tubbytoast.

http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/mark_steel/story.jsp?story=313948

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

The Guardian asks

Has Blunkett Made A Hash Of It?

Thursday July 11, 2002

The papers are full of joints today. But is it safe to smoke them now that David Blunkett has announced his intention to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug next July? No one is quite sure, it seems – least of all the police.

“Don’t do it,” advises the Metropolitan police. “It’s too early not to get arrested for smoking it.” The Kent force described it as an “arrestable offence”, but Avon and Somerset said offenders would only be cautioned if they were carrying a small amount. “Any arrest is still subject to discretion,” South Wales police told the Times.

A number of the papers point out that cannabis dealers will receive longer sentences under the home secretary’s plans. “Why should it be a serious offence to sell cannabis if it is all right to smoke it?” asks the Mail. The Telegraph says the inconsistency is “not just illogical. It could prove disastrous.” The Times says that while there is no incentive for a dealer to specialise in cannabis and abandon class A drugs, “the Blunkett formula is not entirely inconsistent, just hypocritical”.

Boris Johnson agrees. “People smoking dope are spine-cracking bores; and I am told by experts that dope is no longer the innocent substance of the 1970s,” he writes in the Telegraph. But “the stuff is either legal or it isn’t”.

Several reporters take the tube to Brixton to confirm that it is indeed very easy to obtain illegal substances there. Police have already stopped arresting people found carrying cannabis in the south London borough of Lambeth – an experiment the Met considers a success, but which one policeman on the beat deplores. “[Brixton’s drug problem]’s got worse, an absolute failure,” he tells the Times. “They’ll tell you different,” he added, nodding towards the police HQ.

“I walked down bustling Brixton High Street to the cries of ‘skunk’ and ‘dope’ as traders peddled their wares,” says an appalled Sun reporter. “Drug users, dealers, cops and deadbeats … just a typical day in Brixton.” Dealers made GBP100 from the Mail’s reporter alone.

“Policy is a total mess,” complains a “confused” Independent. Mr Blunkett was wrong to reject “shooting galleries” – where heroin addicts can inject safely – and wrong not to downgrade ecstasy to a class B drug, it says. At least Keith Hellawell, the former “drugs tsar” who resigned yesterday in protest at the reforms, has gone, the paper adds.

The Mirror and Guardian both welcome the reforms. “Spliffing,” says the Mirror’s Paul Routledge. “Long overdue”, says the Guardian.

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

Downgrading hash enables Blunkett to focus on cutting supply of lethal class A substances like heroin and crack, and on treating addicts

Alan Travis, home affairs editor

Thursday July 11, 2002

The Guardian

David Blunkett yesterday made clear that the decision to reclassify cannabis means that the focus of government drugs policy will be tackling class A drugs that kill, including heroin and crack, with a big expansion in the treatment of the 250,000 problem drug users in Britain. The policy was outlined yesterday in the home secretary’s response to the Commons home affairs select committee report, The Government’s Drugs Policy: Is It Working? It says:

Cannabis

Harm: It is vital that young people be told “open, honest and credible” messages on drugs. Heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy are harmful and do kill. The advisory council on misuse of drugs has ruled that cannabis is potentially harmful and should remain illegal, but is not a drug that kills. This was “scientifically justified and educationally sensible”. Class C will put cannabis in same “harm group” as antidepressants and steroids.

Penalties: Maximum penalty for possession will go down from five years to two years, in line with current sentencing practice. Legislation will be introduced so that, by July 2003, police will retain the power of arrest for the possession of cannabis – but it will only be used where there are aggravating factors such as protection of children, or where it is linked to public disorder or “flagrant disregard” of the law. In the majority of cases police will “seize and warn”.

Dealing: The maximum penalty for supplying and trafficking in class C drugs will be increased from five years to 14 years, so the courts can impose “substantial sentences for serious dealing offences involving cannabis”. Ministers are to consider a specific offence of dealing to children of 16 and under, with heavier sentences. Mr Blunkett has rejected calls for a lesser offence of “social dealing” on a not for profit basis between friends.

Gateway and education: According to Mr Blunkett, the concept of cannabis as a “gateway drug” is unproven. While most class A drug users used cannabis previously, most cannabis users do not go on to use other drugs regularly. A campaign is to educate young people that all drugs remain illegal and harmful. It will also stress health issues in smoking and cannabis. Mr Blunkett rejects complaints from MPs that use of “shock videos” in drugs education is counter productive.

Lambeth: The Home Office says that there was a 19% increase in arrests for class A dealers in the first six months to December 2001. Polls show 83% of residents supported scheme and 1,350 hours of police time has been saved. A survey of headteachers found the experiment had not increased cannabis use or truancy.

Ecstasy

Harm: The call from MPs for ecstasy to be downgraded from class A is rejected. “Ecstasy can, and does, kill unpredictably. There is no such thing as ‘a safe dose’.”

Treatment: An extra £183m is to be spent expanding treatment and harm minimisation services over the next three years. More treatment places in particular are to be created, to meet the rapid rise in cocaine use and crack cocaine use, and cut the long waiting times for treatment.

Heroin

Prescribing: Doctors are to be encouraged to prescribe heroin “in appropriate cases based on clinical judgment”. The government says it will “ensure all those who could benefit from heroin on prescription will have access to it in the future”.

Shooting galleries: Addicts who receive heroin on prescription will be able to inject on the doctor’s premises, by provision of “safe, medically, supervised areas with clean needles for the administration of heroin prescribed as part of a package of measures for treating heroin addicts”.

Mr Blunkett rejects the MPs’ recommendation for safe injecting houses or “shooting galleries” to be used by any heroin addict. Only a small proportion of the 200,000 will get heroin on prescription. But the home secretary did leave the door open, saying “we are not persuaded that shooting galleries would, at this moment, be helpful”.

Drug driving

Police are to be trained in testing suspect drivers for drug-related impairment.

Paraphernalia

The ban on selling drug “paraphernalia” that help to reduce harm is to be lifted. This includes citric and ascorbic acids, swabs, tourniquets, and filters that can make drug use safer. The exemption for hypodermics would continue.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,753118,00.html

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Posted on 11 July 2002 by admin

Main points

Thursday July 11, 2002

The Guardian

· “Seize and warn” policy for simple cannabis possession

· Police keep power of arrest in aggravated cases

· Maximum sentence for cannabis dealing to remain at 14 years

· £183m expansion of drug treatment programme

· Expansion in heroin prescription

· No “safe injecting rooms”

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