DEADLY “DOPE”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10314, 25 January 1927, Page 8

DEADLY “DOPE”

TRAFFIC ON RIVIERA. SOCIETY WOMEN INVOLVED. Tile increasing prevalence of the drug habit on the French Riviera is forcing itself on puMio attention, and duping the winter, when vendors anticipate a golden harvest, it seems possible that the authorities will be compelled to take much more active measures to cope with the evil. At any hom- of the day or night, between October and April, it is possible' for the drug fiend to obtain for 1.75 dol, sufficient “snow” for two or three “sniffs,” representing; to an habitual drug-taker about half an hour’s supply.

NERVES ARE SHATTERED. The principal customers of the •eg vendors are society women whose nerves have been shattered by incessant high gambling, dancing, and a surfeit of dear, but bad, champagne. The drug most largely sold is her>i ’ although both cocaine and opium may he obtained in large quantities by anyone prepared to pay the high prices demanded. All these drugs are easily brought from Marseilles, the chance of discovery being practically nil, since passengers from other parts of France are not subjected to baggage inspection on the Riviera. Then, again, supplies are regularly smuggled into France from Italy by way of the numerous mule paths across the mountains between the two countries.

TRAPS FOR TOURISTS. It is a matter of common talk that the chief distributors on the Riviera arc a man and his daughter, living in a, superb apartment in one of the principal thoroughfares within a stone’s throw of all the principal hotels. They are received in the best society, and have agents scattered in all the principal tourist centres who distribute to the actual sellers. There is one small shop in Nice which deals ostentatiously in Japanese fancy goods, painted dresses, fans and other articles likely to appeal to the feminine taste. This show of goods, however, is a camouflage, The sale of opium and opium pipes is the real business of the proprietor.