 Could you just get you to a minute and find a way from where we're getting that in here? My phone? There's a number of phones here, sorry, here. You're very age-column here. Okay. Do you have any white paper on you? White paper? No, I don't have one. Ready to go? Look, thanks everyone for coming today. Yesterday we conducted a connection unit in conjunction with regional police in the south-east region, metropolitan north, metropolitan south regions and the Sunshine Coast. The operation of online distributors involved in the supply and distribution of synthetic drugs, in particular synthetic cannabinoids. As you'll see, a number of the items that we've seized are displayed down the rear there. It's very important, particularly leading into an event such as schoolies that we get the message that trade as legal highs and safe products have some very real dangers in terms of personal health and harms. And we've had significant anecdotal evidence recently in relation to incidents where people have actually died of and sustained serious injuries in other incidents. Look, some of the substances that we've seized have contained a substance called alpha PVP. It's a psychotic type substance and people suffer from their body overheating, psychotic events, very irrational behaviour, often leading to violent incidents where they cause significant destruction and often injure themselves as well. Are you sure these drugs actually contain any substances that are listed in the schedule though? Yes, I'm sure. Like these drugs we see today have to be analysed, but we've seized other drugs with the same brand names which have been analysed and contain illicit substances that have either been with any other dangerous drug and that includes analogue derivatives or substances that have substantially similar chemical structure and substantially similar pharmacological effects. I thought those amendments lapsed to the misuse of drugs regulation. The government still hasn't changed its position on that yet. Hasn't come up with a new position. What do you mean they're lapsed? They're lapsed. They're still in the schedules. Even if they're not, the exact compound is not listed in the misuse of drugs regulation. Are these compounds scheduled? Which outlines that if a substance is an analogue, a derivative, or it has substantially similar chemical structure and substantially similar side definition. You've got these lines because of the brand name matching as I was saying. Well look, we've had intelligence about these substances. We've conducted a number of investigations. As I said, there's been incidents in New South Wales and Queensland and with a Pacific branded substance and we seized packaging and materials similar to that where there's been some significant harms and in one instance a death of a person. So we felt that it's certainly something that we treat very seriously and whilst these items that we seized yesterday have to go and undergo a scientific analysis there's certainly substantial evidence to show that some of them are the same products. How far and why are they being sold in stores in Queensland? Look, it's not just Queensland, it's obviously throughout Australia and overseas. Other international jurisdictions are obviously having similar problems with these new synthetic compounds. It is an ongoing challenge for law enforcement and with the use of the internet the distribution network is very concerning and like I said initially when these things first were detected in Australia there was limited information, there was limited research. There had been some incidents obviously in other jurisdictions international jurisdictions and we rely on that information and that intelligence here, we work very closely with other jurisdictions and customs and federal police and the health agencies because we are very concerned about the potential harms and these synthetic, particularly synthetic cannabinoids whilst they're not people call them synthetic cannabis it's actually not a cannabis it can be sprayed onto a piece of paper the chemical compound but often it is sprayed onto a herb or a pot puree of those types of substance similar to cannabis. Now the synthetic compounds in there have the same effects or mimic the same effects as THC does in cannabis on the to some mainstream illegal drugs. Well look, certainly that alpha PVP the evidence about it's very, very harmful it has psychotic effects and obviously as a result of the death of one person and serious injuries to another as a result of his irrational behaviour. You were saying an increase you think because of the availability is that why you've acted or... I think people have seen an opportunity to make significant amounts of money in the distribution of these things particularly marking them as legal highs they're not illegal, you can't get in trouble for it and talking about safe products yet some of them are marked for human consumption. That alone should send out a significant warning to people and particularly our young people who often would read something and say this is legal, it's safe we can talk to other illicit drugs that should send the warning itself because when people are charging a gram, $35 for a gram I don't think those sorts of amounts of money would be getting paid. Have you had a successful prosecution? We've had actual people plead guilty we've still got a lot of matters going through court it is a very complex matter like traditional drugs like heroin and cocaine and amphetamines and cannabis very easily be able to prove what those substances contain from a scientific analysis. What we need for these types of new drugs is that we need a scientific analysis and then we need a forensic medical officer to talk about the pharmacological effects because there's no human trials and the research evidence there is limited at this stage it's now about the significant harms that they can potentially cause. How big of a time is it that the drugs are being sold and marketed as a leg or high like do you believe kids could walk in and think that they're taking something that will be completely safe schools for instance? Yeah, definitely and they're distributed in small tobacco shops alternative shops some of the adult stores there but also online someone can go online and order and they're saying you know on there the marketers are saying 100% legal and a lot of the stuff we've seized that people are saying and they've even had these certificates from China distributors from China saying in fact contain synthetic chemical compounds that are scheduled or come within the definition of a dangerous drug and we've seen the vast majority of them have some there's been the odd one that's come back and doesn't contain that but the vast majority of ones we've seized do contain the list. Exactly like you know we've had we've seized you know stuff to be reporting to the MDMA it contains caffeine, ketamine so really until it's analysed you're not 100% and that's the dangers out there people are ingesting things that they don't really know what it is and you know some of the unfortunately some of the side effects is that is lethal. What would you say to or about these retailers who are doing this really yes like they're taking there might be significant martry gain there but there's significant risk also certainly if you have instance where people have died of result of ingesting those I would suggest that the coroner would be interested in where those products came from. Do you still need some more legal clarity about these kind of substances though I mean the Queensland government still looking at its legislative options you know about scheduling drugs and whether it just kept scheduling more compounds or whether it tries to do it broader. What do police want to see in terms of the regulation of these substances? Look there's no silver bullet to the illicit drug market particularly in the current times it's evolving we've got new and emerging psychoactive substances that are we work very very closely with health agencies with all the other law enforcement agencies with the Department of Justice and Attorney Generals and we look at what's best for the community and you know the regulation and the strategies we put in place are all about reducing harm for the community. Is it easy enough to get a process? Look certainly we believe that you know we've got a good working relationship with the Department of Justice and Attorney Generals and the other agencies and we believe that there's a you know certainly we're moving towards strengthening these as strong as any other jurisdiction and it's an ongoing process it's a challenge for law enforcement but we certainly see that it's a significant issue that we're facing and we have to continue to look at reducing the opportunities for new and emerging substances that come into the illicit market. How cool that were arrested do you know what drugs are actually childhood trafficking? Alpha PVP which is the one that was resulted in the the investigations indicated resulted in the death of that person in South Wales. Do you believe that they were the proceeds of the distribution of these drugs proceeds of that defence? Is this something that you'll be targeting during school years to see if you know young people do have these sorts of products on them? Look we please get information from the community all the time and other sources it's certainly particularly at school years time it's something that we treat very strongly. And if we receive information about people possessing these things we'll certainly be taking the appropriate enforcement action. How long does your scientific analysis generally take? How long would you expect to know? Look we've got a very good relationship with the forensic chemist at Queensland Health and often we can get indications from samples within a matter of days. A full analysis of all exhibits that sometimes does take particularly these ones can take several months. As I said we don't just need an analysis certificate we need a statement from a forensic medical officer to talk about the pharmacological effects of these new compounds. What results come back could determine if there's more charges in this? Definitely our investigations are ongoing and yesterday was about the search and seizure of continuing the search of our analysis and the subsequent investigations where the people will be charged with further offences. There were 17 premises where search lines were executed yesterday so obviously the people that are associated with the businesses that relate to these activities. Is it just kids or do you think that a lot of adults may be using these drugs as well? It's certainly not just the school leavers but obviously that's a significant concern for us but I'd say there'd be a variety of different age groups that would be trying these things. What seems to be pitched at sexual stimulus don't they? Well some of them are, others are pitched at just being an alternative to cannabis and obviously cannabis is the most significant drug that sees throughout Australia so they're using that as a monetary value. Are they only pitched as an alternative to cannabis alternatives to other drugs as well? Oh no there's alternatives to other drugs but I mean the smoking ones obviously are pitched as an alternative to cannabis but you've got things that are referred to as synthetic cocaine or you know things that allegedly give similar effects to ecstasy in that time. Well we've even had people injecting it you know so and that was the case in New South Wales. Can you just tell us about those two cases those two recent cases? So they'd indicate that a male I think they'd tried some orally at one stage and then they injected it and it was I think purported to be bath salts or that smoking slurry and they then had a episode where they, a psychotic episode where they've basically stripped all their clothes off, their bodies were massively overheating and disorientated and they were located and the male was taken to hospital and unfortunately passed away. An incident where a male had caused some significant damage to a premises he was in and it appears during that process he's badly broken his leg or sustained a serious injury to his leg which later resulted in an infection and he had his leg amputated. Well the main one for those two incidents is that hoe, that smoking slurry and there are a variety of ones there that it's basically endless we started off with something called chronic and it's just an ongoing process where they repackage into other names and we use other chemical compounds so as I said it is an ongoing challenge and we work very closely with all the other agencies to best position ourselves to respond to those challenges.