FOLLOWING THE GOLD COAST DRUG TRAIL

For years the Gold Coast has been regarded as a sunny holiday destination.
A nice place to relax on the beach or bring up kids in a house near the
water. But to others it is a dark city where addiction lurks on every
street corner. Lou Robson investigates the Gold Coast's growing drug industry.

THE Gold Coast has been described as a drug mecca.

A little Las Vegas, home to at least 1000 speed laboratories and thousands
of drug users.

Rehab patients and addicts say heroin is everywhere. It comes in from
south-east Asia and moves south from Brisbane and north from Sydney.

Pick up the phone and a mobile dealer will arrive at your door with a boot
full of gear and a long list of customers.

A former dealer and amphetamine 'cook' known only as Bruce says speed is
being brewed in motels, houses and backyards throughout the region.

He says cooks create the substance and hand it to dealers who hand it to
runners who hand it to the public in a matter of minutes. It's easy.

Ecstasy comes to the Gold Coast from Sydney and up north. It flows in from
Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, even the Northern Territory.

Brisbane drug squad police say there is so much movement it is almost
impossible to know exactly where it is all coming from. "The Gold Coast is
a transient area, a major tourist zone and that's what makes it the perfect
place to manufacture and sell a whole range of drugs," said a police spokesman.

"There always has and always will be a huge drug trade on the Coast."

Mick, a 26-year-old former speed addict, agrees.

The one-time builder, who was born on the Gold Coast, said drugs were
nearly impossible to avoid.

He said at the age of 16 he had his first speed experience. One year later
he found himself hitting up in the morning in order to get to work. At
midday he'd take some more just to make it through the day.

He started dealing in some Coast venues selling points, or .1 of a gram of
speed or methamphetamine, for $50 to locals and tourists looking for a good
time. He then started selling larger amounts to make enough profit to
support his $500-a-day obsession.

"I would buy base, or crystal methamphetamine, from a dealer and cut it up
with glucose or epsom salts or some water soluble substance," he said.

"Then I'd sell it off and make about 150 per cent profit on every deal
which was enough money to support my habit and pay back the dealers for the
drugs they gave me on tick."

However Mick said he got greedy. Whatever he made he spent to support his
growing habit. He stopped making the necessary payments.

He fell behind. He stopped answering the phone and just kept taking the
drugs he had left.

"Then one day these two guys came around and ripped one of my fingers off
with a pair of pliers," he said.

"They pulled my finger off and left. I picked it up and drove to the
hospital where they sewed it back on.

"I realised if I didn't get the money they would kill me."

Mick, and other former addicts, said people who double cross drug dealers die.

Some speed addicts, who don't pay their way, were supplied with drugs laced
with finely crushed glass.

As the drugs make their way through the system the glass tears at the
stomach lining, causing irreparable damage and leaving the user writhing in
agony.

Others are dealt 'hot shots', heroin or speed deals so pure they will kill
or seriously injure those who take them.

In March last year Vanessa, a former heroin addict, was given a hot shot
and told to deliver it to a middle aged Coolangatta couple who owed several
hundred dollars to the dealer she worked for.

If she didn't deliver the drugs she didn't get a hit. If she did deliver
the packet she was party to murder.

"I realised then, after using heroin for 15 years, that I had a really big
decision to make," she said.

"It's not like you're logical when you're hooked on H, but being asked to
commit murder was one thing that really opened my eyes. I refused to take
the packet and checked into rehab the next day."

Vanessa said it was hard to give up drugs when they were cheap and readily
available.

She said on the Gold Coast a hit or packet of heroin was worth just $50 and
a quarter of a gram is worth between $180 and $200.

"That's about $10 to $20 more than in Brisbane," she said.

"It's more because we're further away and the purity is often better in
Brisbane."

She said five minutes after arriving on the Gold Coast she found a regular
dealer. All it took was a short stroll through Southport.

"I asked one guy if he knew where I could get on and he said 'yeah' and
made a phone call and minutes later I was hooked up," she said.

"The next day the dealer delivered drugs to my door and soon after he
dropped off a large amount so I could start selling for him."

A former addict, who has been clean for 16 weeks, says he used to deal
speed in three Gold Coast venues with the full consent of the owners.

He said five nights a week he would stand in a corner and watch his
runners, desperate young users being paid with drugs, as they approached
people and ask them if they wanted to score.

"The owners were fully aware of what was going on and we had the run of the
place," he said.

"Often an employee was also doing a roaring trade as well. This is going on
right now in some venues. I mean go out and have a look around at the
trendy places."

Vanessa and Mick say the most reliable place to find drugs on the Gold
Coast is outside Centrelink branches.

The duo said dealers wait around the government welfare offices for addicts
who have just received benefit payments.

They say dealers know addicts at Centrelink are desperate and will pay more
for less. They say addicts also use free phones inside Centrelink offices
to call dealers and arrange for deals to be dropped off.

"When all else fails, head to the Centrelink," said Mick.

"That's what we used to say. If no one was there, we'd pick up the free
phone inside and call somebody and say cheers to the taxpayer for making it
so easy."

Other hot spots include Frank Street at Labrador, Whelan Street at Surfers
Paradise, the Gold Coast Highway particularly at Mermaid Beach, Miami and
Palm Beach. Coolangatta is also rife with drugs and many dealers use the
border town as a drop-off area after travelling to Sydney for supplies.

Rehab patients say dealers and drug cooks target low income areas so they
can rent cheap houses and use them as laboratories. "Southport is really
popular with cooks these days because you can rent an old house and dummy
it up like someone is living there when really all that is happening is
that cooks and dealers and buyers are coming and going," said Mick.

"That way, if something goes wrong, the house can be abandoned and nothing
personal is found."

However cooks don't necessarily need a whole house. Speed can be created in
a space the size of a small desk.

All it takes, say rehab patients and former cook Bruce, is a bunsen burner,
some beakers and the necessary chemicals.

"There is an abundance of speed because it can be made almost anywhere,"
said Bruce.

"You can rent a house somewhere or a unit in Surfers and cook the evil
stuff up and have it out on the streets about 30 minutes after it's finished.

"It's dangerous but if you know what you're doing the profits are enormous.
You can pack it all up into a small suitcase and move whenever you want.
You could do it in a garage or a toilet or anywhere."

Bruce said he quit the industry eight months ago when a friend died.

He admitted he had no conscience while cooking and dealing speed. He said
it took the death of a good mate, who died after taking large amounts of
speed cooked by someone else, to crack the veneer and make him me feel
something for the first time in over a decade.

"I made the shit, I know what's in it and I used to think if you bloody
idiots are willing to stick it in your arm then I don't give a stuff," he said.

"After my mate died I started thinking about the pain I might have caused
others, about the pain I definitely bloody caused. "I mean there are
mothers out there who still probably cry over the kids I (expletive) up. I
cry for them and the only reason I'm talking out is because one kid might
read this and decide to stay the (expletive) away from drugs. They're
everywhere but they can be avoided. Be different and clean and stay away
from it. That's the only advice I've got."

Anyone looking to give up drugs can get help by calling the 24-hour Drug
and Alcohol Information Service on 1800 177 833 or contacting one of the
Gold Coast's many rehabilitation centres.