Remember When: the Coast battled against heroin which kids thought snorting was “real cool”

IT was Easter and drugs were in the news as the Gold Coast’s kids were caught up in drugs snorting heroin which was thought to be “a really cool thing to do”.

Gold Coast History: Gold Coast Bulletin 1977, April 7. Front page.

Gold Coast Bulletin, Thursday April 7, 1977

IT was Easter and drugs were in the news as the Gold Coast’s kids were caught up in drugs.

The Gold Coast Drug Council offered to help the State Government compile an anti-heroin kit in a bid to combat the growing use of the opiate by young people.

The kit would be aimed particularly at educating apathetic parents.

The council’s president Dr Rob Richardson suggested a special brochure following disclosures that the Queensland Health Education Council did not publish a single pamphlet warning of the dangers of heroin.

Dr Richardson said “snorting smack” had become a fashionable pastime on the Gold Coast and he estimated there were around 400 users.

He said the problem was bigger than the Health Education Council likely realised because many young people were not obviously addicted.

Gold Coast Bulletin 1977, April 7. Front page.

“They wouldn’t see the side of heroin we do on the Gold Coast,” he said.

“We see many who use it socially and come to us with a sniffle or a cough.

Dr Richardson envisaged a pamphlet telling parents how to intelligently alert their children to the possible dangers of drugs, He said parents had to be taught how to handle the possibility of waking up one morning to discover they have a teenager who is an addict.

“Kids today think snorting heroin is a pretty cool thing to do,” he said.

He said shock tactics and fire and brimstone talks by parents might aggravate a potential problem.