DORSET Police say they are taking the risk of crystal meth, dubbed the Middle Class crack cocaine, "very seriously".

Ten times more addictive than other amphetamines and known for making users lose their inhibitions, methamphetamine has already ravaged small towns in America where middle-class women take it in the belief it will help them lose weight.

Now it has reached British shores and raids have taken place on the Isle of Wight, in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and London.

So far in this country it has been aimed at the London gay scene but police fear it could soon spread to rural and suburban communities.

Lee Griffiths, drug analyst at Bournemouth police, said no seizures of crystal meth have ever been made in Dorset and there have only been a handful of intelligence logs recorded about the drug in the last five years.

"We are taking the threat very seriously and we are certainly aware of the dangers of methamphetamine on the individual and communities as well but, at the moment, there is nothing to suggest that anybody is targeting Dorset or Bournemouth with methamphetamine."

He added: "As far as we are aware it is not something that's being sold openly as heroin or crack cocaine is sold openly.

"Every now and again we hear that somebody has got hold of some but it's usually come down from London and may have been associated with the gay scene around the Triangle. This has mainly been people from London coming down and using it."

Last week new legislation classified methamphetamine - also known as Tina and ice - alongside cocaine and heroin as a Class A drug. Those in possession of it could face seven years in prison and dealers could get life.

In December three men were found guilty of conspiracy to produce up to £1.5million of methamphetamine in a barn on the Isle of Wight.

10:22am Wednesday 10th January 2007

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