TICTAC DRUG information and visual drug identification system
releases its 50th version containing 24,000 DRUGS

10th April 2008, TICTAC Communications Ltd., St Georges, University of London, London, England – This April, TICTAC will release the golden version of its visual drug identification and drug information system. A new version of TICTAC has been released every quarter since January 1996, leading up to the 50th release in April. This makes TICTAC one of the longest distributed electronic publications.

TICTAC is the drug information & identification system used by UK Law & Order and Healthcare professionals. It has grown considerably over the years and now contains information on 24,000 drugs and drug look-a-likes, 66,000 photographs and a wealth of information including drug monographs, glossaries, slang terms and videos.

The user base of TICTAC had also grown significantly over these years. It is now used across the majority of the UK’s police forces where 60,000 officers have access to it. Within Police forces, TICTAC is most often used by Force Intelligence Bureaux, Drug Liaison Officers, Custody Suites, Drug Education / Expert Witnesses, Drug Squads / Serious Crime, Scientific Support, Property Stores, Community Policing and Scene of Crime Officers. TICTAC is also used by Prisons, throughout the NHS and by numerous community and hospital pharmacies as well as pharmaceutical companies and forensic science laboratories. While there was only one TICTAC product in 1996, there are now three. These can be used across networks, intranets and handheld devices (TICTAC pro, TICTIC net and TICTAC mobile respectively).

TICTAC is created by the renowned Toxicologist John Ramsey at St. George’s, University of London and distributed by Virtual Health Network (VHN) Ltd. For further information, contact Vaughan Tomkins on 01372 371 445 / vtompkins@vhn.net.

Note to Editors: Higher resolution images are available if required. Please contact Vaughan Tomkins

Ecstasy, headache tablets or party pills?

A	B	C
D	E	F

You could serve a prison sentence for possessing two of the tablets above, one would cure your headache, one might be sold to you by a street drug dealer as ecstasy – but isn’t and two of them can be bought from UK based websites as “Party pills”, one of which might put you in hospital with seizures.

Do you know which is which? Users of TICTAC can easily find out

C & D - Prison Sentence (MDMA)	A - Fake Ecstasy (CPP)	B - Headache (paracetamol)
E & F - Party Pills (bkMBDB)	F - Seizures (BZP)

Party pills are tablets or capsules sold from websites or "head shops" containing piperazine derivatives or herbal material with stimulant effects similar to those of amphetamine or MDMA.