FURY AT ‘DRUGS IN TAMPON’ TIP FOR ROCK FANS
CAMPAIGNERS have blasted YouTube videos which advise youngsters how to smuggle drugs into festivals.
A selection of promos show how to hide pills or sachets and get past security searches and sniffer dogs.
One video outlines how about seven pills can be hidden in a tampon. Others show how drugs can be concealed in T-shirt collars or in a hair bun.
Vlogger Crystal Garcia brags: “I didn’t want to just tell you guys to put it in your socks because that’s basic.
“[With these] no one’s going to see you, no guard is going to see it, I’ve never seen a guard check. These are 100% guaranteed.”
YouTube’s policy suggests drug use is considered dangerous content which violates its upload restrictions. However, several of these videos remain online.
Yasmin Batliwala, chair of drugs education charity the Westminster Drug Project, said: “As there is no quality control on the content uploaded to a platform such as YouTube, inaccurate and potentially dangerous messages like these can be shared too easily.”
Joe Griffiths, of drug education charity Hope UK, said: “The recent deaths of two young people at Mutiny Festival in Portsmouth and other drugrelated issues at music events, highlight the dangers associated with drug use.
“YouTube videos such as these, which are encouraging young people to engage in criminal activity, do not help.”
Crystal Garcia’s tutorial begins by assuring viewers she doesn’t condone “sneaking drugs in”, but goes on to share tips to evade sniffer dogs and security body searches.
She then gives a detailed guide on how to use a tampon to smuggle in pills.
She adds: “When it is dry, you’re good to go. It just looks like a brand new sealed tampon, carrying about seven pills.”
She ends by plugging her channel, urging fans to “enjoy, smash the like button, subscribe if you aren’t already”.
Fiona Measham, Professor of Criminology at Durham University, said: “We have a situation at the moment in the UK where a lot of resources are put into people not bringing drugs on site to a festival… security, police, sniffer dogs.
“If people are going to take drugs they have two options, either smuggling them in, hence these YouTube videos, or they buy them on site off dealers.”
Professor Measham’s research has indicated drugs sold on site are more likely to be cut with dangerous substances. For some people, attempting to smuggle in their own “trusted” supply seems like a lower-risk policy, she said.
“Dealers on site are, for example, grinding up pharmaceutical products instead. We know they grind up chloroquine, which is malaria tablets. They sell boric acid which is a household cleaner, which has a similar app-earance to cocaine.
“So if people are going to take drugs that’s the choice – risk being given dangerous drugs on site, or smuggle in your own that might be from a known or trusted dealer.
“So we’re seeing that for some people they think it’s safer to smuggle in.”
YouTube said last night: “YouTube has clear policies that outline what content is not acceptable to post and we remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users.”