SYDNEY MENACE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1932, Page 8

SYDNEY MENACE

DRUGS AND DOPE. 't". A BIG QUESTION. 4 ' ' !,;• y .;|- SYDNEY, Sept, 3. V A case of ..considerable interest to chemists and jkruggists, as weH'- isis'tb medical men, came before the Court this week. Six. mbn were charged with making up and selling various patented «meditincs, thereby “con--spiring to cheat and defraud . the Sydney Importing 00., Ltd.,” andj incidentally, making a considerable amount of money for themselves, Their operations covered a long list of articles. An interesting point came up in connection with the evidence regarding one article. The Sydney manager for the Proprietary was asked how he could distinguish the spurious from the genuine' and ,'deV dined to answer on the ground that he was “sworn to secrecy” and if he disclosed the formula, “it would jeopardise the company's position all over the world.’' However, the mat-j te* will go before the Higher Court, and no doubt all the required information will be forthcoming there. . -7' A much mote serious questioh 1 : Has i been opened up by the prominence that various forms 6f “dope” have attained lately. Last month a woman died at Newcastle after taking atophnn its a Cure for rheumatism. Evidence ; pHoduoed at the: inquest showed that this drug is highly dangerous, and that many doctors decline to prescribe it. By. the way, the use of atbphan was phc of the charges brought against a doctor hy a Sydney /Weekly, which has recently had to pay £2600 for the 'privilege of calling a medical man b quack’ and an imposter. But there tieems to be no doubt that atophan is really, a dangerous poison, and its use should be /more carefully restricted.

OTHER DANGEROUS DRUGS.

However, there are othfer drugs about which there is even less room for difference in opinion, and these seem to be obtainable here without much difficulty in spite of all rules/Eiid reflations to the contrary. . .Ljjst month, a number of chemists’ shops; wefe broken into, in various parts of Sydney, and drugs were stolen, .wjiile nothing else was touched. The police ; fpund that the robberies. were carried out by “a fashionably dressed Woman in a sedan ear.” Further investigations enabled them to connect the case with other attempts to obtain ocaino by means of forged prescript tibns, and, eventually the culprit was arfested. She proved to be the Wife of a doctor and a hopeless drug . addict, who; finding bet ordinary,, sourrei of supply cut off by the vigilance of .the police, had tried to replenish her stock of cocaine by these illicit means; The poor creature is now in a mental .hospital, but there is only too, much reason to believe, that ..jfche poison® • to which her body, and mind have mic-l cumbed are being widely circulated .and sold in and around the city. ' , A few days ago four men and two women—were qrrested at Wbgga on a charge of “drug-run-ning.” ; They had a large amount of opium in their possicssion, and as ■they wer© posing a 3 tourists with a /fine ear and a Large amount of money at their, disposal, they had plenty of facilities for getting rid of the stuff; But opium is of more interest to the Chinese than to Europeans, and 1 a more significant event was the serf tehee of another Chinese this week to tiVelve months’ hard labour for hay : ing cocaine in his possession. The police regard this last offender. as “a principal in the illicit cocaine.trade,” . find some importance may be found to attach to his arrest. There is plenty of evidence to show that large amounts of cocaine and other demoralising, '.(frogs are brought into this country, principally fro'iii the East by way of Darwin and Townsville, and distrib uted freely throughout all the centres of population. One ipapier has just l begun a series of articles dealing with the whole subject and purporting, to show—on the testimony of a man who vyas personally inveigled into the traffic—precisely how this evil workis carried on. If the journal’s revelations even approximate to the actual truth, the police and the detective staffs in this country are facing a • herculean, task jn their efforts to groupie with this “many-headed monster” which .is menacing the health and . morality and sanity of many thousands throughout Australia today.