SYDNEY DRUG ADDICTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 January 1930, Page 10

SYDNEY DRUG ADDICTS

increasing menace.

SYDNEY, January 10.

According to Detective Wickham and Detective Thompson, of the Drug Bureau, of the Criminal Investigation Department, the cocaine traffic, despite heavv penalties, is increasing. The number of opium addicts is not decreasing appreciably. Apparently both drugs, after the victim’s first introduction, gain such a .remarkable power that it is almost impossible to effect reformation. At Darlinghurst and other suburbs cocaine parties continue to meet, and the meetings end in orgies of abandoned conduct. In a Chinese section of the city and at Waterloo and Botany, opium smoking is still indulged in, but the vice is not a serious menace to the community, because it is almost entirely confined to elderly Chinese. The cocaine traffic, however, is a serious danger. Its victims, under the spell of a wild, almost incomprehensible, craving, will do anything for one “sniff” of the vile substance. During the year 1928, 33 persons were prosecuted in the cocaine suppression campaign, and the fines were £lBBl. In 1929, 34 persons were prosecuted, and the total fines rose to £.3342. No fewer than 15 persons during, the. past year were sentenced to imprisonment for twelve months, without the option of a fine, and another 14, unable to pay the heavy fines —in the majority of cases a fine of £250 was imposed—served the alternative term of imprisonment. Only 5 ounces of cocaine were seized, showing that the traffickers carry very little at a time. To them, cocaine is more precious than gold, and those able to get constant supplies of the drug have been known to become wealthy almost overnight. During 1929, 46 persons were charged with smoking or having been possessed of opium, and penalties amounted to £BBB. The opium seized amounted to 500 ounces.