HASHISH SMOKING

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 July 1937, Page 11

HASHISH SMOKING

LURE OF HAPPY DREAMS LONDON, June 12. Mysterious illnesses of women in different, parts of England during the past few months have led to the discovery of dope smuggling on a scale which is. worrying the authorities. These illnesses have been traced to hashish smoking. Hashish is the dried root of a plant grown in the Lebanon mountains and sent all over the world, principally to Egypt. Many of these smugglers are Moslem women, who carry this high-ly-prized drug in their clothing. The drug is smuggled in England principally by Arab and Chinese sailors and firemen. Cardiff is one of the important centres of distribution. ‘•Whenever we see a dock-side cafe attracting bigger crowds, particularly of women, than usual," said a Cardiff police official, "we want to know why. As a rule there, is only one reason — hashish.” A pinhead of hashish may cost as much as £1 or more.

A Cardiff Customs official described some of the difficulties with which the waterguard officers contend in trying to stotr this smuggling. “A fistful of hashish," he said, “would be worth some hundreds of pounds and so the risk is well worth taking.” One of Ute new smuggling methods is to pack an ounce or two of hashish in a waterproof bag. This is tied to a bag of salt, weighting two or three pounds, which is thrown out of a porthole. The bag sinks at once, but after some hours the salt has dissolved and a piece of wood put in the bag gives sufficient, buoyancy to bring the bag to the surface for boatmen to pick up. “We are making a new drive against this dope running, said a Cardiff ■waterguard office)*. “It. is a continuous battle of wits.”