WE will find you - that is message to drug users and dealers in Gwent, who are being targeted with technology.

Monmouthshire Community Safety Partnership and Gwent Police's B-Division now own a new £40,000 machine which can detect the equivalent in drugs to a grain of salt in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The machine is loaned to other police divisions in Gwent and was used at a nightclub by A-division officers in Newport.

One of around 40 in the UK, this machine is the first in Wales and will be used in pubs, clubs, schools, workplaces and during roadside checks.

At the request of the manager of Newport nightclub Zanzibar, Ion Track was in action last week to test customers at random, and also detected cocaine on the toilet seats.

Police commonly use the machine to swab licensed premises on a Saturday or Sunday morning before the cleaners arrive, so evidence of drug use in particular areas, such as in the toilets or at certain tables, can be passed to the management and a watch can be kept by staff.

Crime prevention officer PC Simon James has been trained to use Ion Track and has plans to begin demonstrations at schools in the area this summer.

He said: "It is a superb piece of kit. It is an educational resource, a detection tool and a preventative tool because people will know that if they are swabbed and give a high reading they are also going to be searched.

"With this machine, if people are taking and handling drugs, we will know about it. There is nothing else on the market at the moment which does this.

"But just because someone shows a positive test does not mean they are a drug user because of the possibility of cross-contamination. It gives us a starting-point, and then we can ask that person how they came to be in contact with drugs."

The machine is so sensitive that even days after a person has handled drugs or explosives, no matter how many times they wash, it can pick up traces. And it is effective on all dry surfaces, not just on skin.

There are now plans to urge all pubs and clubs to sign an agreement giving police permission to use Ion Track on their premises without warning, hopefully as a condition of their licence.

Newport's Pubwatch group is to meet on June 14 to discuss the idea. Iftekhar Harris, who owns the Meze Lounge music venue and The Gallery cocktail bar in Newport, said such was the scale of the "out-of-control" drug problem that he was even in favour of random drug-testing in the workplace.

"It's not just clubs that should be tested. Drugs are an issue to people from all walks of life, and I think people should be tested when they arrive in work on a Monday morning.

"People these days can't cope with their lives because there's so much pressure on them to perform.

"People have to get a kick out of everything they do.

"Drugs are so freely available nowadays and more and more people are indulging in drugs. It's out of control.

"It's not only the clubs - people are coming together in their own houses and having coke (cocaine) parties.

"Some people keep blaming the clubs but people are taking the drugs before they go in the club, and afterwards."

In the Meze Lounge, Mr Harris said there was a zero- tolerance stance on drugs: "People think it's even OK to smoke marijuana but we've cut that out.

"Anyone who gets caught with cocaine or Ecstasy gets an outright ban. "We get extra door staff to make people empty their pockets."

Mr Harris believes society has become more violent in recent years, a reason he attributes to the increased availability of drugs.

"People start fighting without knowing what they are doing, and they are so confident after taking drugs like coke or crack cocaine that they become a lot more aggressive."