OPIUM PLANTATIONS IN N.S.W.

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24503, 28 February 1945, Page 8

OPIUM PLANTATIONS IN N.S.W.

PEAR OP ILLICIT TRADE AFTER THE WAR (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 27. The swift expansion, in the growth of the opium poppy plant m New South Wales hasenaoled Australia to supply her own demands for morphine but it has also brought about dangers which fire causing some state officials ?I^ice°arfd n i«rlcuitural departments axe strictly supervising the production of the poppy, but there are fears of an opium traffic alter the war which might prove difficult to stamp out. These fears have been heightened by the readiness with which the poppy is growing in certain districts, by the ease with which the drug can be extracted, and by the quickness a now firmly-established black market has shown in finding and exploiting profitable’ sources of illicit revenue. . The main danger lies in illicit growing. Before the war the opium poppy was declared a noxious weed ill . every state of Australia, but when war came Australia had to find her own morphine, and an industry, which became an important part of Australians war effort, w's developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Farmers are now growing the plant tinder .contract at £45 a ton, .and more farmers have been Invited to become growers. Prominent state officials read into this an invitation to continue the industry after the war, and they do not think the present controls go far enough.