Police braced for LSD influx

Press, 28 June 1989, Page 2

Police braced for LSD influx

By

BARRY CLARKE

The Christchurch drug squad is bracing itself for an influx of LSD after a dramatic rise in the number of tabs seized in Auckland.

Police and customs officers have seized nearly 7500 doses of the drug this month, almost all of it in Auckland. It has been of high quality, imported from Europe and the United States.

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tion. The most common form of importation is through the mail. LSD tabs are usually impregnated into blotting paper, which customs and police sniffer dogs are unable to detect. Other favoured ways of smuggling are internally and in luggage. Detective Senior-Ser-geant Richard Higginson, of the Auckland drug squad, said new varieties of the drug were surfacing every day. “LSD is coming through the airports, the mail system and off the wharves. There are countless methods used to hide the drug. Its minuscule size makes detection difficult,” he said. Nearly 12,000 tabs have been seized by the police so far this year. For the whole of 1988, 12,135 tabs were seized nationally, 10,000 of that in one haul in Wellington. “There is evidence LSD is widespread throughout the country,” Detective Inspector Paul Nickalls, of the National Drug Intelligence Bureau in Wellington, said. “But its predominant use is in Auckland. “We are concerned. LSD is a mind-bending drug and has drastic effects on the body.”

More than 12 search warrants were executed in Auckland last week, with the police making several arrests. About 6000 tabs were seized at an Auckland house this month. They were high-quality microdot LSD with a street value of $240,000. Acid, as LSD is more commonly known, is selling on average for between $2O and $4O a trip, depending on quality and type. Heroin can be bought on the streets for between $5OO and $l5OO a gram, depending on quality and supply, and cocaine $2OO to $7OO a gram. LSD use died out in the 1970 s after a worldwide campaign highlighting the effects badly manufactured trips had on users. But a glut of goodquality drugs made in professional laboratories in Holland, West Germany and the west coast of the United States is now being dumped into Auckland by international drug dealers. Multi-coloured brandnames include Acorns, Lightning Bolts, Surfboards, Purple Haze, Witches Hats and Rubic Cubes. Plain-coloured trips are also in circula-

Drug squad chiefs say Auckland is the distribution centre for LSD (lysergide), unfashionable in New Zealand since the "flower power” era of the late 60s and early 70s. But fewer “bad trips” because of better manufacturing, its cheap price compared with other hard drugs and the ease with which it can be smuggled has brought LSD back into favour.

“We are aware of what is happening in Auckland. No doubt it will start down here,” Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Whitford, of the Christchurch drug squad, said yesterday. “We’re finding one or two people with it. It is a supply-and-demand thing. As soon as there is a reasonable supply, there is an upsurge in use.” Three gangs in Auckland are believed to be behind the network of dealers importing LSD. Last week, a raid on the headquarters of the Headhunters and their associates turned up a quantity of imported LSD and