A hoax leaflet warning that tattoos soaked in LSD are being sold to schoolchildren has set alarm bells ringing in York.

The leaflet, which has been circulating in the city in recent days, claims that youngsters who buy the "Blue Star" tattoos can absorb the hallucinogenic drug through the skin, simply by handling the paper.

It claims that other brightly coloured tabs, bearing pictures of characters such as Mickey Mouse and Bart Simpson and also laced with drugs, are being sold as well.

"This is a new way of selling acid by appealing to young children and your child could come across these and have a fatal trip," warns the leaflet, which purports to be based on information from the Metropolitan Police.

"Some are laced with strychnine," it adds.

But York police said today the leaflets were completely bogus, and appeared to be rather like a self-perpetuating chain letter which had been circulating for years elsewhere before reaching York.

"If this is a joke, it's a very sick joke," said DC Dave Horn, drugs co-ordinator in the force's central area.

"It is preying on parents' fears, and parents have enough to worry about without this."

He said police had checked with the Metropolitan Police, Scotland Yard and the National Crime Intelligence Services and the British Forensic Science Service.

These organisations had confirmed that the information had not come from the Metropolitan Police or any other police force; nor was there any evidence that drugs were being sold in this way to children anywhere in Britain.

It was also "highly improbable" that LSD could be absorbed into the body through ordinary skin, although there might be a risk when the skin was scratched or cut.

DC Horn stressed that many people involved in circulating the leaflet in York may have done so in good faith, responding to a line in the leaflet saying: "Please feel free to reproduce this article and distribute it within your community and workplace."

A copy of the leaflet was passed in good faith to the Evening Press by Carol McGrogan, of The Groves, who feared her daughter might be unwittingly put at risk.

When informed by the paper that the document was a hoax, she said: "It's a great relief. I think it's sick. It's terrible." She said she had heard that the leaflet had been given to staff at York District Hospital's Casualty department by police, who feared children in York were being targeted. But DC Horn said police had at no stage distributed the leaflet.

*Anyone with any queries should contact DC Horn on 01904 631321.

Updated: 08:15 Thursday, June 07, 2001