My sister is proposing to drive from France to Shetland in a few days time.

Theres a little background here

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cannabis-induced-psychosis

I reported her to the local Police in La Creuse. I was given a letter by her GP for her to inform them herself of her continued use of cannabis as a self referral to an arrest if she persisted in driving. In the end I had to present it to the Gendarmerie. She is belligerent and continues to drive whilst stoned almost daily driving past the police station. It’s a rural department with a tiny police force.

She is proposing to drive on a manic deluded mission to Shetland. She will more than likely sail from Calais to Dover.

She in is severe need of psychiatric care, whether she or her wreck of a car will ever reach Calais is an open question, but if she does, is there any way I can report her to the Police at Dover to prevent her driving whilst stoned in the UK?

Call them?

Could the Border Force be persuaded to search her for any of her medication?

https://www.amsallegations.homeoffice.gov.uk/default.aspx/RenderForm/?F.Name=Lf62UB7cz4C

Good luck Pete – it must be very difficult.

Simply by calling the Port of Dover Police?

http://www.doverport.co.uk/about/police/

Edit

She was prescribed Largactil, a quick Google says it can cause drowsiness. Not ideal for a long motorway trip.

I think she could be crazy enough to travel with cannabis in the car.

I think she could be crazy enough to travel with cannabis in the car.

That’s the medication I meant.

Pete,
I think there is a danger that a phone call might not be able to convey the situation clearly enough for them to act.

The Scottish police is somewhat different to us here in Wales, but I would suggest you make an urgent appointment with a senior officer – preferably Superintendent level – at your local police station. You can then clearly explain the situation and he will be in the best position to know who to contact to get the car stopped on entry.

There will almost certainly be some form of ANPR (number plate recognition) at channel ports and the car will almost certainly be able to be spotted when it arrives.

Rich.

@rwamartin – very sensible suggestions. Phoning Dover direct is likely to be hit and miss at best. If you can speak to someone senior enough face to face, you’ve got a better chance of a successful outcome. Good luck with it.

Surely a phone call to say you know there will be a vehicle entering the UK carrying drugs should prompt some action?

I feel for you mcmoonter, this must v=be a very, very difficult time for you.

Do you have a copy of the letter from her French GP? Something tangible may make it easier to persuade the police to take you seriously. Border Force sounds like the most likely place to act as they’ll already be set up to search based on the probable cause that you can supply.

Boerder police mmight be interested. Give them phone.

Would it be better to get it address on the French side, before she’s able to cross the channel? Lord only knows how you’d do that though

Do you have a copy of the letter from her French GP? Something tangible may make it easier to persuade the police to take you seriously. Border Force sounds like the most likely place to act as they’ll already be set up to search based on the probable cause that you can supply.

I still have the original letter.

Some great advice above. I will try the local Police first, that way I can speak face to face.

Tough times. Call the police. Do you have the registration details of her car, her French address ? All should be passed on. To be honest the French need to be informed too as she’s going to be driving there. The UK police should contact them.

If your French is good enough a call to the local French police and/or the town hall would be worthwhile.

EDIT: I don;t really have any good news stories on canabis induced phycosis as the two people I know who have had it whilst still alive are very different people now. Once is divorced from his wife (two lovely kids) and the other is a young lad who took other drugs and has gone from a great, active and smart kid to someone who has few prospects

I think care is needed here. If you do it purely through a call to the Border Force, there is a danger that their focus is purely on the drugs and a serious drugs charge may result from the importation of any cannabis she has on her.

An understanding of her mental state by those at a more senior level may result in a more sympathetic method of dealing with the situation. It may not, but ultimately she is (with respect) mad not bad and the course of action needs to be done with her best interests as the main focus.

Rich.

If border police catch her with drugs she’ll be done for smuggling, bunging in jail with all the other mentally ill patients.

I don’t know your sister’s situation but I can’t see how getting arrested for smuggling drugs would do anything other than make it immeasurably worse. Surely it’s better to deal with this anywhere other than the border?

I understand the views above.

Hear me out on this although the comparison isn’t made frivolously.

The recent German aeroplane crash could have been possibly prevented had the co pilot’s girlfriend raised her concerns.

I’m in a position where I’m staring a ‘car crash’ on several levels in the face.

The welfare and liberty of someone hell bent on a psychotic road trip in my eyes is less important than the safety of those she will be sharing the roads with.

If she is naive enough to travel with drugs in the car it wouldn’t be beyond her to use them. No one regardless of their mental state should be immune from that responsibly.

I’m certain that the police could make the distinction between a hardcore smuggler and someone with mental health issues.

mcmoonter, if you like I can put you in touch with a Police Scotland Roads Policing sergeant, maybe get him to ring you and discuss? If that suits then I’ll drop you an email, get some contact details, and pass them on to him. We’re the wrong side, but since we’re all now one big happy family….

Unless she’s got dealing quantities of cannabis in the car she’s unlikely to get done for any drug offence other than possession.

mcmoonter, if you like I can put you in touch with a Police Scotland Roads Policing sergeant, maybe get him to ring you and discuss? If that suits then I’ll drop you an email, get some contact details, and pass them on to him.

That would be a great help. My email is in my profile.

I’ve made contact with an old school friend who works within Police Scotland for some advice as to where to raise our concerns.

Could you not travel out and bring her back? Expensive, I concede, but perhaps the only way to get her over safely (for everyone) and without the risk of also being caught, and most likely imprisoned, for traffic of drugs. As sideshow says, that scenario is likely to have an awfully negative impact on her situation.

TGV ?

Might busted by the Police as they pass Calais , but at least she won’t fall asleep and have a crash

Could you not travel out and bring her back? Expensive, I concede, but perhaps the only way to get her over safely (for everyone) and without the risk of also being caught, and most likely imprisoned, for traffic of drugs. As sideshow says, that scenario is likely to have an awfully negative impact on her situation.

Logic and compassion would suggest this would be a practical solution.

We as a family have been subjected to this problem which has plagued us for getting on for thirty years. We’ve picked up the pieces so many times. The outcome you describe maybe be negative but it might be the only way the message gets through to her.

Email sent

I’m not sure that a single shock would bring her back, or even start her on the journey back, from her psychosis, and I don’t know if there could be any guarantee of getting into the right support system if she gets arrested in a foreign country smuggling drugs. I’d love to be entirely incorrect, but I just feel that arrest could lead only to her being introduced into a lottery of getting/not getting appropriate support. I hope that the police in the UK can give you some kind of guidance and assistance. Do you know what possibility is of having her sectioned? Sorry if that was covered in previous threads, I’ve not had time to read through.

It’s a long, long road, and probably even longer when she’s 30 years of habitual thoughts, emotional responses and behaviours to blanket the initial event(s) that introduced the psychosis. If she doesn’t remember it happening – and I assure you that it’s possible that she does, she just won’t be able to engage with other people in the acknowledgement – then the process of returning to the same ‘reality’ as other people, or just back close to where she started from, is an absolutely enormous set of challenges.

Even if only for responsibility for others who may be injured by her actions, I would not be able to let her travel alone.

You have my every sympathy. Being so far from somebody you should be so close to is probably the keenest and deepest of pains.

She’s a danger to public and call the police!

Get over there….Let her tyres down…slash tyres…make car unusable…anything to try to stop her…family is worth the effort.

as above trash the car!!!

I went to my local police station this morning. The desk sergeant said there was nothing they could do as my sister wasn’t yet in the country.

One wonders if she was traveling with a lorry full of cocaine if there was still nothing they could do?

Their suggestion was to phone Border Control at Dover. I will do that this evening.

It’s not realy a border force matter, unless you want to report her for smuggling. I would suggest you contct Kent police with all the relevant details includng the numberplate of her vehicle. Repeat the process in writing, detailing that you feel she may represent a danger to other road users, this my force them to make some sort of risk assesment regarding what to do – UK Law Enforcement despise risk and loves a risk assesment. Kent police may put her on a watch list at Dover or the UK prescence at Coquelles to stop and speak to, they may put her car on ANPR with a stop instruction so it can be pinged inland or they may feel she represents no risk to other road users, a lot will depend on what you tell them to aid the in their risk assesment / desicion making. They would probably prefer some form of window on when she is likely to travel, she won’t be kept on a watch list for weeks on end.
You might aslo want to provide simialar details to the Gendarmerie or Police Nationale

Pete,

You need to get past the desk sergeant. Yes, he’s right, there’s nothing they can do from a legal point of view as no offences have been committed but I think he’s being a bit “can’t be a*sed” about it as it’s not going to be something that can be dealt with simply.

Its a case of finding someone who can own the issue and see the bigger picture. Thats why grunts on the coalface are not likely to be able to help.

Not sure where you’re exactly located but try to get to a big police station where there is someone of real authority working. If the one you’ve visited is big, try another.

Rich.

Kilo is right about the border force. Hear in West Wales it’s Dyfed-Powys Police that deal with the ports at Fishguard and Pembroke Dock. Kent Police is much more likely to be able to deal with it.

The Police won’t look for her, they will let ANPR do their work but will ANPR work with a French licence pate? Or does she have British plates?

Thanks guys.

I called the Port of Dover Police. They said they could stop her at Dover to establish a Welfare Report for Impairment, I would need to provide the information at my local Police station.

I also called the UK Border Force. They put me through to their dept in Calais. They said they could stop her and refer her over to the Police upon arrival in the UK. Their jurisdiction is limited in France.

I’m going back down to my local station just now. If I can’t get any joy at the desk tonight, I’m going to as to see a superior officer tomorrow morning.

Both the Port of Dover Police and the Uk Border Force were very understanding of and concerned by the situation. It’s nice to hear these bodies have a human side.

She will be traveling in a RHD car with French plates.

Good,that’s a positive step.

Can’t you fly over there and drive her to the uk with her car? If she’s adamant in coming, help her.

+1 for helping her on this mission to Shetland. Get involved and get her back in the UK. Getting her care and help here will be sooo much easier.

If she regularly drives stoned and has done for years she is used to it. Although her reactions will be slowed, her manic mood swings will be capped too. For motorway driving where the mind has time to think about other things perhaps it not as crazy as it seems. She has obviously been self medicating herself for years, she will have her methods of coping. She is still here. Give her a little more respect.

I wonder if your despair at her situation is clouding your reasonable judgement.

In a previous post mcmoonter had been in touch with the subject of the Shetland visit who is recovering from leukemia and does not want the visit to go ahead.

Ok. In that case then I would be playing along with it all until we got to the point in the story where it didn’t work out. In Shetland, man says no. Then I would be there to support and reinforce (or establish) yourself as a person she can lean on during a crap situation.

She would then be in the right place to get access to the help you believe she needs and she would also be somewhere that she has a support network of people to prop her up when its needed.

Calling the police about marijuana in personal amounts will only lead to unnecessary stressors for her in my opinion. Go and help her and stop grassing her up for petty crimes.

I appreciate these are desperate times and hard to see clearly when your options are so limited and your help doesn’t feel like it is welcomed. Throwing her to the wolves and hoping that she ends up being cared for can’t be the best way. There’s as much chance of them mishandling the situation, her becoming panicked and it escalating into something more serious. How do you respond when forced into a corner?

A quick update. Police Scotland (Kirkcaldy Police Station) have been utterly useless.

UK Border Agency as I mentioned earlier were very helpful.

My sister’s unstable mental state is escalating daily while she is still in France. We thought she was going to be self admitted to hospital yesterday, she is refusing to go voluntarily, it seems extremely likely she will be sectioned with no control over the outcome.

My niece is in the care of my aunt and uncle in nearby.

Re Port of Dover Police, be aware they don’t cover the Tunnel at Coquelles