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POLICE are again accused of trampling over civil liberties after surprising ­clubbers with snap drug tests, we can reveal.

Customers queuing outside clubs have been approached by officers who swab their hands for traces of illegal ­substances.

Those who don’t co-operate are refused entry while those who test positive are questioned and face being searched and arrested.

Politicians and licensed trade bosses yesterday criticised the tactic as heavy-handed and a breach of young people’s rights.

Police Scotland have been under sustained criticism after a huge ­escalation of stop and search.

Last weekend, officers turned up at Club Tropicana in Aberdeen with a drug-detection machine called an itemiser and a sniffer dog.

They tested 100 people on the ­Friday and ­Saturday and a CCTV van monitored the club’s entrance.

Club boss Tony Cochrane said he was given an hour’s notice before police arrived and swabbed people in the queue.

Officers failed to register any ­positive results for illegal drugs including cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and heroin.

Cochrane said: “I ­support an anti-drug policy but I feel this latest action by Police Scotland is a step too far in regards to civil ­liberties.

“Officers stood at the club entrance and took sample swabs on customers entering with an expectation we should refuse admission to ‘non-compliants’.

“When they returned the second night we managed to speak to a duty sergeant who was sympathetic to some of our points. We appreciate the work the police do but they’re achieving nothing with this policy.

“People going for a night out are being made to feel like potential criminals.

“Anyone who saw a huge team of police with a sniffer dog and a CCTV van would think the club is a trouble spot, which is far from reality.

“Police found nothing in two nights and said they won’t be back for few months.

“I’d like to know why they feel the need to come back at all. They’re wasting manpower and resources on making law-abiding citizens feel like suspects.”

Last week Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said the Scottish Government would ban police from stop-and-search unless they had ­“reasonable grounds” to believe a crime was being committed.

Officers have been able to perform consensual searches if a person agrees to co-operate.

But a report by human rights ­lawyer John Scott QC said the policy was “of questonable lawfulness and legitmacy with poor ­accountability”. Stop-and-search figures in ­Scotland are the highest in the UK at 600,000 in a year, with many of them young people.

Police Scotland were told to rein in searches over fears that officers were driven by meeting targets rather than fighting crime.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie yesterday criticised the stop and swab tactic.

He said: “Carrying out such tests without a suspicion of a crime is a heavy handed and indiscriminate tactic by the police.

“It’s why we stood firmly against industrial scale stop and search.

“Police Scotland need to review this tactic and explain how this helps address drug taking.”

Graeme Pearson, Scottish Labour justice spokesman and ex-head of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, added: “Where police spring tests upon people and there’s a ­pressure to co-operate, it adds ­concern about the giving of consent and whether operations like this are appropriate.

“Whether or not there’s ­reasonable suspicion, it doesn’t ­create the kind of co-operative effort that one expects in community ­policing.”

Officers in Aberdeen were the first in Scotland to use a portable drug tester in 2008.

The £25,000 device is designed to indicate whether a person has picked up drugs or handled a significant ­quantity.

Four men were charged with drug offences after the machine was used in Union Street in May.

Highland and Islands independent MSP John Finnie, convener of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group of human rights, said: “It would be interesting to understand the legal basis for these approaches.

“It’s important that citizens co-operate with police but I’m ­struggling to understand what can be achieved by this approach.”

Solicitor Janet Hood, an expert in licensing law, added: “This sort of action seems very similar to Police Scotland’s stop-and-search policy which has been criticised across the whole of Scotland.

“The force have to consider whether they have the right to carry out this type of operation.

“Officers should approach ­– someone if they suspect an offence is being committed.

“I’ve heard that police claim ­customers like this sort of action because it makes them feel safe, but I doubt that is the case.”

Police Scotland claimed stop and swab had contributed to Aberdeen winning Purple Flag status in 2013 for ­its safe nightlife.

Inspector Lorna Ferguson said: “The itemiser is a visible ­deterrent to those seeking to enter pubs and clubs in possession of drugs.

“Where positive results were obtained, the patron was asked to account for the results and either searched or refused admission where appropriate.”

Police Scotland said: “These operations are carried out regularly across the city centre’s licensed premises as part of Police Scotland’s duty to keep people safe.

“They are set up in advance and done with the full co-operation of the premises’ managers and staff.”