WEST Cumbrian clubbers are being offered cut-price Ecstasy tablets for just £1.50 each.

Magistrates at West Allerdale magistrates court heard this week how dealers are peddling cut-price tablets in bags of 10 for just £15.

Gary Law, a 23-year-old married father-of-two, from Moresby near Whitehaven, admitted possessing the Class A drugs after buying them from a man in Workington’s Fusion nightclub during a night out last Friday.

Law, who has not been in trouble since 1999, was given credit for his early guilty plea and fined £200. He must also pay £43 costs.

The magistrates, sitting in Workington, also ordered the drugs to be destroyed.

Defence solicitor Craig Smith said: “He bumped into someone in Fusion who offered to sell him Ecstasy. They were being sold in bags of 10 and he paid £15. He didn’t intend to supply anyone, it was for personal use.?

Earlier this year Detective Chief Inspector Andy Carter, of West Cumbria police, warned that tablets were being sold for around £3 each.

Just six months ago tablets were selling for £5 each, or three for a tenner, in Carlisle.

Police warned that substances such as rat poison and dog worming tablets had been found mixed with the Class A drug. Ten years earlier they were ?0 each.

Paul Brown, director of the Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service, said: “They are getting cheaper all the time and they don’t have a lot of MDMA, the chemical which gives the sense of euphoria, in them anymore.

“We have heard of people taking as many as 15 at a time to get the same buzz they used to get off one tablet. In the early Nineties people could pay around £20 for one pill.?

Fusion is Workington’s biggest nightclub with a 1,100 capacity.

Part of the Luminar Leisure chain, the club takes a tough stance against drugs.

Sniffer dogs regularly check both customers and staff.

Fusion’s general manager Jon Covell said: “Luminar’s philosophy is very clearly defined. We disapprove of drug misuse and its associated culture. “We make no concession which will encourage customers or employees who want to use our premises for such things.

“It is company policy to have any person in possession of or to sell drugs reported to and arrested by the police in accordance with local police policy.?

By KELLY EVE

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