WILL CLEAN UP DRUG TRAFFIC.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18578, 28 September 1928, Page 11

WILL CLEAN UP DRUG TRAFFIC.

FRENCH AUTHORITIES PLAN CAMPAIGN. PARIS, August 25. The French authorities have decided to embark on a great campaign to stamp out the dope traffic in France, especially in Paris. It will be under the direction of specially trained detectives, who will assume the roles of drug-takers and traffickers in order to discover the sources of supply for the secret dope-dens in Montmartre and other districts. The campaign is the result of the recent sensational trial in Paris of 75 persons connected with the traffic. It was there established that one of the biggest channels for the distribution of opium, morphine, heroin and cocaine was through doctors and chemists who are in contact with the sale centres in Paris and the importation centres of Marseilles. 2000 Opium-Smokers. The police calculate that there are in Paris alone 2000 confirmed opiumsmokers, besides large numbers of morphine and heroin takers and “snow fiends.” Nine thousand pounds of opium are imported yearly from China, India, Persia, Turkey and Indo-China, nearly all of it coming through Marseilles. The traffickers make enormous profits. They sell opium costing 4s in China for £9 in P'rance. There was recently seized in a Japanese ship within French waters drugs, mainly opium and heroin, valued at £112,000. They w-ere packed in camouflaged packets, and described as “Synthetic Medicinal Produce.” Scotland Yard’s Example. The traffic received a deadly blow from the conviction of a number of prominent Paris doctors and chemists at the trial above-mentioned. It is believed, now that a fresh campaign has been started, that dramatic developments will follow. The French police has been encouraged by the remarkable success attending the efforts of Scotland Yard to stamp out the traffic in London. The British campaign, with its systematic patrol of the West End, its raids on nefarious night clubs, its careful watch at the ports and the London termini, its investigations among London’s unfortunates, its heavy sentences in the Courts, and its deportation of Orientr tals, Central Europeans and others connected with the traffic, has, for the time being, rid London of the scourge.