About $3.5 billion of "hot" cash is generated annually by white collar fraud and money laundering by the drug trade, according to a NSW Police Service report. In the first annual report ever released on the work of its top 550 police detectives, NSW Crime Agencies has predicted that drug trafficking by gangs of Middle Eastern origin will be among the main criminal activities to cause "increasing economic and social harms" to the State's population in 2001. The report by Crime Agencies - which in the year 1999-2000 dismantled more than 15 organised crime groups and made 1,284 arrests - says the major source of illegal funds in Australia is fraud, followed by drugs. The report says that "virtually nothing else matters" by comparison. [continues 677 words]
They look like a group of volunteers selling raffle tickets at a school fete. But these people are creating history. A Melbourne youth dance festival secretly played host to Australia's first ecstasy testing station last week. Now the tests are heading to Sydney. The initiative allows users to test the purity of pills before using them. The news is certain to spark further debate over whether ecstasy is becoming legitimised by stealth. The test kit manufacturers say the kit is legal, so there can be no objection to it being distributed, free, as a harm minimisation strategy. [continues 363 words]
The Crime Agencies Annual Report shows that NSW police have seized $291 million worth of drugs, up 53 per cent from the previous year, and confiscated $9.8 million (up 483pc) in assets allegedly purchased with drug money. The seizures included 34,581 grams of amphetamines (up 415pc), 173,032g of cannabis leaf (up 440pc), 19,325g of ecstasy (up 157pc) and 481,102g of heroin (up 11pc). Drugs operations included the dismantling of 20 clandestine laboratories, predominantly making amphetamines. Police virtually have disbanded a motorcycle gang involved in major trafficking and closed Sydney nightclubs selling drugs. [continues 437 words]
Four young males stand around a toilet cubicle, debating how to split their two ecstasy tablets. "Let me take the first half, you had it first last week," says one. "Do you have the water?" The scene is the Tantra Club under-18 dance party. The bar is closed. But in the toilets, drugs are readily available. Tantra is just one of any number of establishments in Sydney where drugs are on offer from dealers and where prices have dropped as low as $25 each. [continues 450 words]
Tens of thousands of young Sydneysiders will take ecstasy as part of their New Year's Eve celebrations tonight, knowing there is virtually no chance they will be caught. An investigation by The Sun-Herald has found ecstasy has now so infiltrated the culture of clubs and organised dance parties that some experts believe as many as 100,000 teenagers could be taking it tonight. Senior police officers have told The Sun-Herald ecstasy is so widely available they have neither the powers nor resources to halt its meteoric rise to number one position as the recreational drug of choice. [continues 662 words]
Australia's most vigorous anti-ecstasy campaigners, Angela and Tony Wood, have ceased their fight against the drug and moved to the United Kingdom. Friends say they were burnt out and needed time to grieve for their daughter, Anna, who died at 15 after taking ecstasy. The couple worked tirelessly to educate young people about the dangers of ecstasy for years after Anna's death in 1995. Mrs Wood, in particular, embraced the cause. She regularly spoke to three school groups a day, travelling all over Australia. [continues 264 words]
THIS nonsense about medical supervision of heroin use in "shooting galleries" has gone too far. Anyone concerned about constitutional stability should have realised by now that under Section 109 of the Constitution the State has no authority to do anything with or to a prohibited import such as heroin. Under the Federal Customs Act, heroin is the property of the Commonwealth and all police and customs officers are required to seize it. State legislation in conflict with that is unconstitutional and invalid, and relevant regulations illegal. [continues 79 words]
Australia's largest ecstasy haul, hidden in a shipment of French wine, led to drugs charges being brought against two men yesterday. Federal Justice and Customs Minister Amanda Vanstone announced the record seizure of 271,000 tablets, weighing 105.5kg, with a street value of $13.5 million. Senator Vanstone said Federal Police had monitored the movement of a container allegedly holding the drugs to a warehouse in the Port Botany area. Part of the shipment had been unpacked and two men were arrested on Friday night, Senator Vanstone said. [continues 291 words]
An alleged principal suspect in Australia's biggest cocaine bust was arrested in the bar of a Bondi hotel as the Olympic Opening Ceremony was being shown on television. Thomas McCaffrey, an English-born alleged illegal immigrant, appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court yesterday where he was formally refused bail. He was remanded in custody to appear in St James Court on October 3. McCaffrey, 43, was charged with the importation of illegal drugs, possessing the proceeds of crime and making a false statement in a passport application. [continues 128 words]
IF YOU'RE wrong and you admit it, you deserve respect. Such as Dr Robert Dupont, chairman of the drug dependency section of the World Psychiatric Association: "Not only is marijuana worse than alcohol and tobacco combined, it has distinctive properties neither of the others have. I now consider marijuana the biggest new health problem in our nation. For today's youngsters, kicking the marijuana habit is going to be a life-and-death struggle. My past support for decriminalising marijuana was the worst thing I ever said. I hereby apologise to the American people." Back in Australia, we have drug "experts" still calling marijuana a "soft" drug and wanting it legal. Arnold Jago, Mildura, Victoria [end]
YOUR editorial (The Sun-Herald, July 16) calling for action on the rapid detox industry is admirable but unfortunately too late for many families. Not only do we have the tragic death, such as Thi Ngoc Diem Nguyen and Larissa Hawkins, but many families who have sold everything for treatment that, in many cases, was never likely to work. Our organisation has been urging caution and government control since stories of the "miracle cure" broke three years ago. Urged on by shock-jock radio presenters and some naive politicians, entrepreneurial medicos and their backers have not only caused pain and distress for families, they have set back the potential benefits naltrexone might offer to those for whom it is suitable. Another aspect of the naltrexone phenomena is it is now being prescribed by some medical practitioners who seem to be unaware of its dangers and side effects and without observing protocols about detoxification before commencing maintenance treatment. Tony Trimingham, Family Drug Support, Willoughby [end]
I AM a heroin addict. But before I am dismissed as another member of the lower-class, uneducated junkie population, please realise that I completed Year 12 at one of Sydney's best private schools and passed - convincingly - my first two years of university before dropping out due to my addiction. Michael Robinson (The Sun-Herald, July 16) states that cutting supply of heroin to addicts will help solve the problem. How does he propose that it be done? Over the last five years the Australian Customs budget has been increased, the number of seizures has increased and we have also had several enormous, well-publicised seizures. [continues 184 words]
Michael Robinson (The Sun-Herald, July 16) states that cutting supply of heroin to addicts will help solve the problem. How does he propose that it be done? Over the last five years the Australian Customs budget has been increased, the number of seizures has increased and we have also had several enormous, well-publicised seizures. But on the streets of Cabramatta heroin has become cheaper and more pure than when I started using it five years ago. This should dispel the popularly held myth that simply cutting supply of heroin stops the heroin addicts. [continues 140 words]
NALTREXONE is used to help people who have withdrawn from heroin stay off the drug. It is not a substitute. It stops heroin having its usual effect by attaching to receptors in the brain to block the effects of opiate drugs such as heroin and morphine. In theory, people taking naltrexone are less likely to use heroin because they won't experience the usual euphoria. It can be dangerous when combined with heroin because people are desensitised to the drug and may take more than normal. Hence, the risk of overdose is increased. [continues 142 words]
THE GOVERNMENT must move with full speed to regulate the multimillion dollar drugs detoxification industry. Its promise of a crackdown yesterday - following an investigation by this newspaper - is welcome. Clinics claiming to break drug dependency have sprung up across the State at an alarming rate. Charging fees of up to $10,000, they trade on society's most vulnerable: parents desperate to free their children from a cycle of despair, and addicts simply fighting for their lives. Some are reputable. But the fact that this booming trade was able to spread so quickly and unchecked is a cause for concern. It appears that, apart from ensuring it is prescribed by a registered GP, a clinic's owners are under no legal obligation to do anything else. [continues 342 words]
Kim Beazley can't be serious in supporting heroin use rooms with taxpayers' funds. Why should taxpayers fund the prolonging of addiction and substance abuse? He has his priorities all wrong. Neither Labor, nor Liberal, were willing to support dairy farmers' livelihoods. So why should they support drug addicts prolonging their addictions and crime sprees against taxpayers and our property? This is treacherous. It's better to help addicts get their lives back and rejoin productive members of society. After the appalling disloyalty of the Nationals in supporting the Labor and Liberal destruction of farmers and their communities, there is bound to be some voter backlash against all three. [continues 55 words]
THE NSW Government last night announced an urgent review of private drugs detoxification clinics after a Sun-Herald investigation revealed an urgent need for proper guidelines and increased medical supervision. The moves come after the death of a 19-year-old Liverpool mother in the waiting room of a clinic which has since closed. The Rapid Detox Centre was already in receivership when it began treating Thi Ngoc Diem Nguyen with naltrexone. Her parents, who paid $2,900 for the course, claim proper procedures were absent. [continues 659 words]
ON SUNDAY, July 2, The Sun-Herald reported that the NSW Police Commissioner was this week expected to grant permission for The Uniting Church's Rev Harry Herbert to establish a heroin drug-use room. I must make the point that neither such a room, nor use of harmful substances such as heroin, can be made safe. Neither can such a room ever be made legal. Commissioner Ryan would be acting illegally by committing an offence against Federal law, including Section 236 of The Federal Customs Act. Where is the Federal Government's response to get Customs working properly to protect us from the influx of these drugs, and to prosecute those who have acted against the Federal law, including the NSW and Victoria governments? MICHAEL D. ROBINSON Hurlstone Park [end]
IT'S AN uneasy, queasy feeling, agreeing with Peter Costello, even if it is only on one small point. But in the face of TV advertisements showing decent Aussie blokes forced to turn to raspberry lemonade because booze has become too pricey, thanks to the GST, he quite rightly said that if the Government was going to tax children's clothes and books, it was certainly not going to exempt the old jungle juice. Cheers to that, although there are many of us who say that children's clothes and books should be GST free. But even if they were, alcohol would be well down the queue of "essentials" - somewhere behind those big plastic trumpets kids blow at football matches in my book. [continues 523 words]
THE extreme Right and the extreme Left of politics will unite this week to attack the planned heroin injecting room trial in Kings Cross. Arch-conservative Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile has enlisted the support of left-wing Swedish Green, MaLou Lindholm to tell his own "drug summit" that the NSW trial, due to start in October, will not work. Ms Lindholm, a former Green MP in the European Parliament, said Sweden had learnt from experience that liberal drug laws led to more people getting hooked. [continues 107 words]
