The most common codes Gold Coast drug dealers use to try and fool police

When is a beer not a beer? When it’s been used as a code word for a drug deal. Find out some of the most common drug codes Gold Coast dealers have tried to get away with.

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WHEN is a beer not a beer?

When it’s been used as a code word for a drug deal.

Dealers and their customers have been communicating in code for years in an effort to dodge the police officer who may be watching and intercepting messages and put them off the scent.

Some of those codes may be successful, but in most cases the attempted subterfuge is a little obvious.

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The Gold Coast Bulletin has compiled a list of code words that frequently feature in the Southport courts after dealers are caught.

• Beer: Not related to a single drug but often “catch up for a beer” is actually code for “let’s do a deal”.
• Eye, ice: Methamphetamine.
• Goey, fast one: Amphetamines.
• Green, gardening, smoke, bud: Cannabis.
• Slow one, arm: heroin.
• DVDs, roundies, mollie, pingas, lollies: Ecstasy.
• Frank, drink, liquid coma: GHB or GBL.
• Nose beers, rack, nose: Cocaine.
• Eight-ball: A unit of measurement meaning between 3g to 3.5g.

Codes that dealers use often change but some, like ice, ­fantasy and pingas, stick and become common usage.

“Defence solicitors and police generally know that certain codes are used for certain types of drugs,” Allen & Searing Criminal Lawyers director Jodi Allen said.

“The difficulty is proving what the code means.”

Ms Allen said the code alone often wasn’t enough for police and additional evidence was needed.

For example, if an arrangement to “catch up for beers” is made and police then see the people meeting for about five minutes and exchanging packages, it is likely to be a drug deal.

But if after the same arrangement to “catch up for beers” was made and police saw the pair meet for about half an hour, it would be difficult to prove they did not just catch up for beers.

In a statement from a police officer provided in a drug case, Senior Sergeant Andrew ­Graham said in some cases the codes were difficult to ­decipher.

“Some codes are common and frequently used, as to form part of the standard language of the overall criminal/drug subculture,” he said.

Sen Sgt Graham said an example was someone in the motor vehicle industry using car parts such as “tyres” to refer to drugs.

Gatenby Criminal Lawyers director Michael Gatenby said he had one case in which police had accused a Harley-Davidson enthusiast of selling drugs. But when the matter got to court it became clear the man was actually talking about Harley-Davidson parts.

Mr Gatenby said drug dealers had been using codes for years.

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