THE “DOPE” TRAFFIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19616, 21 October 1925, Page 8

THE “DOPE” TRAFFIC.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE. MANY CUNNING DEVICES. HIDING OPIUM AND COCAINE. In an article, contributed to the Sunday Nows by a deck officer of the mercantile marine, a eide of the “dope” traffic little known to the general public is discussed, and many “ tricks of the trade ” are revealed, The writer says; Mention of any of the three principal drugs associated with the vice of “ dope" taking—opium, morphia, and cocaine—calls to mind pictures of mysterious dens run I inscrutable Orientals, who make a quick and ready outfit out of the degenerate cravings of white customers. My experience in Eastern waters since the war. however, has convinced me that there are many white men intimately connected with the traffic, some of them making small fortunes by smuggling it from the East to London. Most of them are officers of the mercantile marine whose privileged positions allow them ample scope for profitable smuggling. ’ While I have yet to meet a fellow-officer who is a confirmed drug-taker, I know a number of them who are prepared to make money by satisfying the demand for opium, and. more particularly, cocaine. Apart from London. Liverpool, and Cardiff, which the the chief home ports for the disposal of dope, there is a big demand for it in the East. Smuggling goes on between such ports as Kobe. Shanghai, Singapore, Penang, Rangoon, and Calcutta. “THE VICE OF VICES.”, Drug-taking, of course, is second nature with the Orientals; a nd Ihave met Europeans of many years’ experience in the East who openly declared they consider opium Ie harmful in its effects than excess in alcohol. But all people in the East who treat the subject seriously condemn morphia injection as a vice and cocaine sniffing as the vice of vices. The main source of opium smuggling is the. China-Burma frontier. It is far too long for effectice policing, and, although in parts of Burma the native is not allowed to possess opium, smuggling is so easy and widespread that an habitual smoker can get all he desires with comparative ease. Normally the drug is made' up into small black balls, which may be any size np to three inches in diameter. They are usually bought three at a time, and artful arrangements are made to get the stuff on the ship. _ Customs men are always on the watch for opium passing from shore 1 to ship,- and at Rangoon, particularly, there are frequent searches of vessels for the smuggled dope. Mostly under cover of darkness, a native boat passes casuallv and slowlv by » ship, and an unerring aim will send a parcel of three balls through a marked port-hole EASILY HIDDEN ON BOARD. Once on board, it is easily hidden—in coils of rope, in water cans, lifebelts, and so on, or even in the bunkers beneath tons at coal. Opium generally gets off the ship in the same way that it came aboard—thrown to a waiting native boat under cover of darkness. It is often disposed of in broad daylight. while Customs officials are searching the ship. Traffic in cocaine is carried on in a similar way. Japan is the favourite place' for obtaining it. The regulations there are so lax that it is easy to get the drug aboard. Here, again, in a Japanese port, the eecro trader will have a few connections with natives ashore. They will supply him with cocaine either in small tins or in smaller bottles. A regular supply edn easily be contracted for, and the buyer can get three times a 3 much in Calcutta as the price he pays f or it in Japan. London prices are at least treble those of Calcutta. The main difficulty is to avoid getting an innocuous powder supposed to be cocaine. I should not like to leave the impression that all officers of the mercantile marine are engaged in this nefarious traffic. All one can say is that it is not very difficult to get it when once fellow-officers have been introduced by shipmates to the sources of aopply and disposal.