Ultra-violet lighting in public toilets is the latest weapon being used to combat drug abuse in North Yorkshire.

Safeway's Amanda Broadbent with the lights

Selby's Safeway supermarket, in Portholme Road, has installed the bright blue lighting in its customers' loos because it makes it very difficult for drug addicts to find a vein to inject heroin or amphetamines.

And hundreds of other premises throughout the area, including pubs and clubs, could soon be following suit if police recommendations are followed. It also emerged today that York and Selby Magistrates Courts are looking at the possibility of installing the ultra-violet deterrent in their court toilets on the advice of police.

A year ago an unemployed drug addict died after being found in the men's toilets at Sainsbury's in Fossbank, York. Another addict died in hospital in January this year, five months after he collapsed while sharing a bag of heroin in the public toilets near the Barbican Centre.

Safeway targeted a number of places - including Selby and North London - where drugs are an escalating problem.

Although trialled in other parts of Britain and on the continent, it is the first time it has been tried in North Yorkshire.

Police are also including the anti-drug lighting as one of the licensing conditions when a new pub or club opens.

Selby's latest pub, Sam's Wharfe, which opens early next year, will have all its toilets lit with ultra-violet strips as part of the licensing conditions.

Selby police licensing officer PC John Stephenson said he had now included the special lighting in a drugs guide he had prepared for licensees in the hope that more pubs and clubs would adopt the idea.

He said: "It's a simple inexpensive way of discouraging drug users and protecting a safe environment for customers. There's always a risk that paraphernalia such as used needles could be left lying around in toilets which could be used by children.

"Heroin is in plentiful supply and is now cheaper than cannabis, so any new weapon that will help in the fight against drugs is to be welcomed".

PC Stephenson's drugs guide for licensees will be considered by York and North Yorkshire's Drug Action Team next month. If it is approved, ultra-violet lighting in public toilets will be recommended to all the county's pubs and clubs.

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