Extracts from Caterer's archives

Cannabis smoking in pubs - what are the outward signs that licensees should look for? Detective Sergeant L Willett told a meeting of licensees at the Bell Hotel, Canterbury, that cannabis smokers usually split a manufactured cigarette and sprinkle the drug on to it. Then the cigarette is rerolled with cigarette papers, using a piece of cardboard as a filter.

So the signs to look for are excessive use of cigarette papers and pieces of crumpled cardboard in the ashtray.

The smell of cannabis smoking? Like burning hay, said DS Willett. He told the meeting that, when cannabis smoking takes place in licensed premises, the licensee's responsibility in law is absolute. He has no excuse in being out for the evening, leaving someone else temporarily in charge. (Caterer, 22 February 1968).

A Plymouth hotelier, who is a city councillor, made false claims in a brochure and it led to his being fined £150 with £40 costs. He was found guilty on eight charges under the Trade Descriptions Act at Plymouth Magistrates' Court.

Ivor Turner said in a brochure for West Hoe Terrace that all rooms were centrally heated, had hot and cold water, shaving points and radios, and that there were bathrooms and toilets on each floor. Mr Turner denied the eight offences but admitted falsely claiming to have RAC approval in his brochure and displaying an RAC sign outside the hotel.

The prosecution came after a couple and a woman friend complained. When they arrived at the hotel in July they found that the double room complied with the description in the brochure, but not the single room for the friend. (Caterer, 23 February 1978)

Richard Branson has become a non-executive director of the Soviet Union's British tourist subsidiary, Intourist Moscow. The appointment came after Mr Branson visited the USSR last month when he signed a deal for his privately owned Voyager Group to run package holidays for British tourists to the Crimean coast of the Black Sea.

Virgin Holidays, part of the Voyager Group, has 5,000 holidays to Russia to sell this summer. The Oreanda Hotel in Yalta is to be made over exclusively to Virgin guests. The 119-bedroom hotel was formerly a Tsarist palace, and Virgin aims to offer good-quality accommodation at a low cost. Fourteen nights in June will cost £559. (Caterer, 25 February 1988)