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Unwanted touristsFrom our Queensland correspondentthe gipsy-gangs of hippies and drug addicts who have dccidcd , to follow the sun.For Queensland's police these sun-seeking youngsters are nothing but trouble. At best they represent a floating pooulalion of vagrants. At worst they increase Queensland's- drug traffic (which is growing, anyway) and leave a trail of minor burglaries.The northward winter migration by hippy addicts is now clcarly established as an annual event. Police here say that marihuana addicts in particular prefer a warm climate, and tend to seek the winter warmth of Queensland or the Northern Territory.Brisbane. In one case, the farmer” was not an addict but was growing the drug Tor sale. Other clumps of marihuana were found in far north Queensland.Police arc not certain that they discovered all of last year's plantings. They fear that marihuana may be growing wild in remote areas of Queensland, and they have evidence that new farms” arc being planned. A Sydney youth arrested late last month in Brisbane had marihuana seeds, and police who raided a hothouse in Mackay in mid-June found 57 lovingly-tended marihuana bushes growing to a height of 6 feet.AUSTRALIA’S -annual winter tourist migration is now in full swing.From Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and points between sun-starved holidaymakers arc flooding northwards to bask in Queensland's warmth.The southerners arc packing into the Gold Coast beach colonics, trekking north along the Bruce Highway to Cairns, and island-hopping to the- resorts of the Great Barrier Reef.But blending into the northbound stream are some dccidedly unwelcome guests:Defending Miss BrodieSir. — T assume that I am nnc of those with a somewhat twisted sexual outlook” referred to by Mr B. Roberts (Letters, 3uly 8) in his tirade against ‘The Prime of .Miss Jean Brodie*, because T enjoyed the film, which left me with a feeling of pity rather than disgust.The film was labelled as “suitable for adults only”, which should have been some indication that it was not a film to send the kiddies to on a Saturday afternoon.Obviously Mr Roberts did not pive much thought to the movie, instead of stalking out in Victorian high dudgeon at the sight of a sketched male nude or a rather tragic schoolgirl having an affair with the art teacher, he might have done well to stay to the end. Instead of Miss Brodie's values being lauded by the film, he would have found that she was at last brought momentarily In face reality as the film saw it, ami was left a rather pathetic, warped and neurotically romantic spinster, without her “gels or a lover, and as she said herself, past her prime.If the film portrayed Miss Brodie as warped and bad for children, where docs Mr Roberts find his point of disagreement' His altitude to this film is symptomatic of the self-righteous, half-cocked criticisms of many self-appointed saviours of public morality. If film theatres showed only movies suitable for their fastidious tastes, we should all be sickened bv a surfeit of sugar and happy endings.JENNIFER BRADLEY Campbell.Letters to the Editor should be signed and carry the full address of the writer. A Post Office box is not sufficient address. In exceptional cirruui-atanccs a j«n name may he accepted for publication. Correspondents are askrd lo keep letters as short as possible.Isolated areas along the sparsely settled Queensland coast provide addicts with a tempting opportunity to establish drug farms, growing marihuana and other forbidden crops.Last winter southern addicts were found as far north as Cooktown, more than 1,000 miles from Brisbane. This year, Sydney and Melbourne dctcclivcs have already warned Queensland police that addicts have begun moving north.HPHE migration is rcflcctcd in recent court cases. Jn May and June 15 young people faced Queensland courts on drug charges; seven of them came from southern States.During May Queensland Drug Squad detectives made arrests in Mackay rind Cooktown. A 23-ycar-old Sydney man arrested in Mackay admitted to police that he had entertained hitch-hikers and other tourists at pot” parlies. Policc obtained c-vi-dcncc that wandering hippy gangs had been given the youth's Mackay address.Already this winter several pharmacies in Queensland coastal towns have been broken into and robbed. In mid-June 150 phials of morphine were stolen from a Mackay chemist's shop.Policc view such burglaries as one of the more serious consequences of '.he migration by addicts. Last year, addicts were blamed for drug thefts from pharmacies and for numerous thefts of money and food.Another worry for policc is that many female addicts turn to prostitution. Outbreaks of venereal disease were traced to this source last winter.Last year’s tourist addicts” established several marihuana plantations along the Queensland coast. Thriving crops, which had been well watered and fertilised, were discovered just north and jus: south ofadd to police worries a new branch of the drug traffic has been discovered here over the past month. Detectives have found that innocuous - seeming mushroom soup can be a deadly addictive drug, with cfTccts as devastating as those of LSD.A mushroom known as psilocybc cubensis contains the drug psilocybine, which can produce hallucinations similar to those caused by LSD. Of about 200 known mushroom varieties, it is the only one which has this effect.Despite the 200-to-l odds, addicts have discovered the mushroom’s properties and learnt to identify it. Police; believe the discovery was made early in June, following a Queensland university search for edible mushrooms. A student is believed to have discovered the hallucinogenic cffccts of psilocybc cubensis, and spread the word to addicts in Brisbane and Sydney.T\RUG Squad dctcclivcs “acting on information” discovered the new drug source late in June when they raided a Brisbane flat and arrested three youths. Jn the flat they found a bowl of mushrooms and a saucepan of canned vegetable soup, to which mushrooms hud been added.The youths admitted to policc that they had cooked the mushrooms in the soup and used the resulting broth to take trips”.Policc later raided another flat, where they found more mushrooms and arrested two more youths.Drug Squad detectives learned that the psilocybc cubensis mushrooms were growing wild on the Sunshine Coast, the beach-rcsort area about 60 miles north of Brisbane.They were told that two electricity authority linesmen,who had mistaken the mushrooms for an edible variety, had required hospital treatment after eating psilocybc cubensis.Queensland University senior lecturer in botany Dr J. Aberdeen identified the mushrooms and warned that anybody who ate them would require two days’ hospital treatment.He listed these symptoms: coloured vision, dry mouth, sense of well-being, visual hallucinations, uncontrollable giggling, paralysis, rapid hcart-beat and impairment of memory and concentration.The mushrooms seized in policc raids were traced to- a JlO-acrc paddock on Sippy Downs, a 5,000 - acre grazing property in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.The manager* of Sippy Downs, Mr Bill Cason, complained that hippy-type youths and girls” had been cutting the paddock's barbed-wirc fence to get at the mushrooms.In an cfTort to halt the mushroom - hunters two snarling cattle dogs have been turned loose in the paddock. Detectives have been hiding in nearby scrub and keeping watch through binoculars.I Four young men from NSW were fined $200 each in the Nambour Magistrates Court on Thursday on chargcs of being in possscsion of psilocybine.The prosecutor said he had' received a complaint front the manager of Sippy Downs that four persons had entered the property the previous morning. He and another policc officer went to the property, saw a grey panel van, and when they stopped it a box containing mushrooms was found on the floor. The mushrooms were later identified as the hallucogenic type containing psilocybine.)But the Sippy Downs paddock is not the only place in Queensland where psilocybc cubensis grows.Policc have received a tip that the mushrooms arc being deliberately cultivated somewhere just north of Sippy Downs, and they fear that mushroom culture may join marihuana farming on Queensland’s list of undesirable “industries.VICE-REGALThe Governor-General. Sir Paul Hasiuck, and Lady Hastiick arrived in Lac, New Guinea, yesterday morning and in the afternoon the Governor-General opened the Institute of Higher Technical Education.
Newspaper Details
Canberra Times
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, AU
Sat, Jul 12, 1969
Page 12
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 20 Feb 2020
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