Israeli police flee drug fumes

The marijuana fumes proved too much for Israeli police

Israeli police were forced to leave their offices after being overcome by fumes from confiscated marijuana.

Their police station in Dimona, in the southern Negev Desert, stores all marijuana confiscated along the Israel-Egypt border, a busy smuggling route.

Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the smell at the station was overpowering.

Although the marijuana will be destroyed next week, the storeroom is expected to fill up again in a couple of months, Mr Kleiman said.

Every time I came to work I felt very bad, like I was high Israel police officer

In the past two months, between three and four tonnes of marijuana were seized.

The Israel newspaper Maariv quoted one police officer saying: "Every time I came to work I felt very bad, like I was high."

"The smell of the marijuana was killing us, we couldn't work", he said.

Finally it was too much for the officers and a police medical officer ordered personnel to move to another office until the drugs were destroyed.