DRUG MENACE

Hokitika Guardian, 3 August 1935, Page 6

DRUG MENACE

POLICE DECLARE NEW WAR SERIOUS POSITION. IN LONDON LONDON, July 29. The closing months of Lord Tron-e-hard's command of the London Metropolitan Police will he-marked bv an intensive drive against drug traffickers — “soul murderers’ ’ they have been called —whose nefarious trade has recently been growing apace in the West End. The police have no illusions about the task confronting them, for there is abundant- proof that the drug trade is being slowly organised into a big a racket as it was in the heyday of Bril" Hunt Chang, one-time “Dope King" of Britain.

Two aspects of the new drug menace are causing grave concern —the increase in the smoking of doped cigarettes, particularly by white girls in the WestEnd, and the ease with which drugs can bo obtained in the heart of the Empire’s capital. A year or so ago, with the death of fffie-pld nigbt club, it looked as if the police had won their long battle against the drug racket. Drug-takers wore finding it increasingly difficulty to obtain supplies, and frequenters of night clubs were no longer subjected to the insidious temptations of “snow” and hashish.

But the triumph of the police was short-lived. During the -past few months, the drug menace has grown to such au extent that Special Branch men and specially-selected officers from the Criminial Investigation Department have ibeen given orders that it must be stamped out. To-day the various headquarters 'of London’s, dope trade are not in the East End, as in the old days. They are situated within a mile of Piccadilly Circus, practically always in pleasant flats occupied by people of apparently unblemished records. Young and pretty girls, butterflies of the metropolis, are the chief victims of the new drug vendors. Jaded and weary after sleepless nights and hectic days, they fall easy victims to the plausible temptations of the “snow’’ and hashish seller, who murmurs “just one little whiff and you will be happy and gay again.”. At first the girl may refuse, hut her tempter is quite content to wait. He knows that almost invariably the dancing girl or bottle party “friend” will come along sooner or later for “just that one little whiff” which will enable her to carry on long after she is dead tired. From that.moment, unless she is very strong-willed indeed, she is doomed.

To-day there are a score of places iu the: West Efid where drugs*.,iriay.lbev-ob: tafnedL and ‘.‘no' questions asked;” -There; are a: dozen.-, places where- :the;', casUfll visitor- \vho r hff'S; jbeun vouched for—which means he does not look -like* a detective—may "be apnroached and asked if he or she is intereseted ip a “sweetened” cigarette. Many women who have no need to add to their natural charm and gaiety try one of the cigarettes “to see what it is like.” Not more perhaps than one per cent of this type fall victims to craving tor more and more dope—but there is that one per cent who do. Tn a case at Marlborough Street" recently, Detective-Sergeant Keen, speak-, ing about cigarettes containing Indian hemp, told the magistrate : “From mv information this -class of cigarette is bong sold to white girls in West End clubs.” The smoking of that par-, ticular drug, declared the' officer, was on the increase.

In their efforts to stump out the menace the police arc keeping a watch on disreputable cafes and clubs known to be frequented by drug smugglers. The airports are being closely guarded against smuggling. Mysterious motorboats which make periodical appearances off the South Coast' arc being checked up.

The movements of certain owners of private aircraft are being “tailed,’’ and very soon the authorities hope to be in possession of sufficient evidence to carry out a wholesale swoop on the drug traffickers. The task of the police is not nearly so easy to-day as it was only 15 years ago, when, following the war, there was a great Wave of drugtaking in Britain. Then the ports, particularly the London docks, were the chief venue by which drugs were brought illicitly into the country. Nowadays aeroplanes, motor-boats and private yachts have taken the place of the old tramp steamer in the international distribution of drugs.

Sealed packages landed on lonely parts of tbe coast, or boxes landed in lonely fields from night flying aeroplanes, have usurped the older dodges such as cocaine hidden away in coal bunkers, or brought ashore in a boot with a double sole.

But the police are not concentrating all their enegies on the night-club or bottle-party drug peddling. They are also keeping a wary eye on the activities of a group of professional men who arc believed to be finding the money for this new attempt to swamp London with drug-peddling agents.

Already Scotland Yard has had some success in their new war, but so far only the smaller men have fallen into their net. During the next few months the war will be waged with increasing intensity. The illicit sale of drugs, which ranks with Wa«lcmail as the lowest form of sftul destroying crime, has produced a gang of cunning men who will stop at nothing in their nefarious practice. There is big money to be made in the game, and the men behind it arc fully aware of the risks they run, but, as Usual, it is only the small and careless agent who i s easily caught by the police. The big men remain in the background. The huge profits come not from the casual sale of dope, but from the organised. sale to addicts. A

novice can obtain reasonable quantities of cocaine hashish or opium at almost commercial prices, but as the craving for drugs grows the prices mount. It is then that the men behind the trade make their profits.

Beyond the mere financial n'reet of the drug trade there are social evils of the gravest nature. Innocent girls have been ruined body and soul as a sequel to that first “whiff” ; young men have had their -feet set down the road which leads to degradation because they have listened to the persuasions of sotne smoot-h-voised club friend and his stories of “beautiful dreams and peace.”