Parents find drugs in park (updated)

Police in Paphos was called to a park in Yeroskipou Thursday by parents accompanying their children, who found a bag containing what is believed to be crystal methamphetamine.

The parents, who found a bag containing the drug, hidden in the stone wall surrounding the park, immediately called the drug squad.

On closer inspection the bag was found to contain three straws, sealed at the ends by melting the plastic, containing around half a gramme of crystal meth.

The drug was taken by police for tests.

Drug squad spokesman Stelios Sergides described Friday crystal methamphetamine as a powerful drug, which quickly leads to addiction and leaves visible external marks on the body.

Sergides said the appearance of the substance on the island worried the drug squad, irrelevant of the fact that rates of use were low in comparison with other countries that faced a terrible problem.

“Users should be careful not to use this substance as it has many negative effects on the human body and their health,” he said, adding that the drug appeared more and more often in Cyprus, in the last three to four years.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.