DRUG SOCIETY DOES EXIST IN N.Z.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17865, 5 June 1926, Page 2

DRUG SOCIETY DOES EXIST IN N.Z.

DUNEDIN ARMY MAN CONFIRMS COL. KNOTT’S STARTLING STATEMENT. AUCKLAND GIRLS DOPED WITH CHOCOLATES. Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, June 5. Inquiries among social workers about Colonel Knott’s statement as to a drug society, elicited varying replies. Ensign Coombs, of the Salvation Army, stated she knew of nowhere where drugs were obtainable in Dunedin. The Rev Bryan King spoke similarlv. Sister Nora, secretary of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, said: “I know girls do take drugs, but where they get them I don’t know.” She added that she had not heard of a secret society. Girls had come to her drugged, saying that men had persuaded them to take drugs and pills. Brigadier Burton, Salvation Army, confirmed the story, stating that one of their Auckland officers had got into touch with a girl there, obtaining sufficient information to lead her to a chemist shop where she got some chocolate, which, the Brigadier thought, was being analysed now. The Brigadier added that he had been informed that there was a secret society in New Zealand, whose purpose was to trap innocent girls. In one Auckland case a girl was found insensible in a public lavatory. An Army Samaritan Officer elicited the information that the girl had been to a garden dance. Inquiry revealed that the girl had been offered and accepted chocolates. Several Dunedin chemists interviewed state that normally there was little inquiry here for drugs, and none were given. During the Exhibition, however, when many oversea visitors were here the inquiry was considerably greater.