 Look, thanks very much for coming. I've called this press conference as a result of concerns that I've got as the head of the State Drug Investigation Unit over some misinformation that's been getting around about so-called legal highs or fake weed. And this has been referring to synthetic cannabinoids in particular, and the information is inaccurate. There's legislation and number of jurisdiction in particular Queensland, and this synthetic cannabinoids is potentially very, very harmful if ingested by persons and short-term and long-term health effects. And certainly people that use or possess these items or, for that matter, supply these items to other people face very real risks of prosecution for serious criminal offenses. Today we seized about approximately 1.8 kilos or just over 1.8 kilos of synthetic cannabinoids. We've also seized 172 pills. A few of that seizure today is approximately $55,000. However, we've been conducting investigations since early October, and where we are targeting a distributor, a business involved in distributing these drugs to various other persons in Queensland, including a number of retail stores. And we seized approximately 100 kilos since that investigation commenced. This is something that's becoming increasingly common, this type of drug. Certainly persons involved in criminal enterprises are looking for opportunities to develop new synthetic drugs, particularly synthetic-type drugs, to avert legislation or laws that are in different jurisdictions. It's an ongoing problem for police. A number of the jurisdictions, including Queensland, were very proactive, and our government introduced laws in September, on the 9th of September, and again some further amendments to the drugs misuse regulations on the 11th of September, this year also. Has anyone been charged in relation to today's seizures? Look, I must say at the outset that we've intentionally not attempted to charge any person at this stage. We want to get these substances or these material that we seized today analysed and get the precise information about what it contains. That's one thing about the synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic drugs that I really want to warn people about. A lot of these companies that are supplying these have a list of items that it doesn't contain or allegedly doesn't contain, and even the producers in China and places like that that are bringing these into the country, they'll often attach a certificate saying this is what it contains. Now, analysis of some of the drugs that have been seized that have come through the border have shown that these certificates aren't true, they're false. They do contain illicit substances, quite a number of them, and the 100 kilos of product that we have seized, the majority of those seizures have got illicit compounds or illicit substances, and do come within the definition of a dangerous drug under the Drug's Missuse Act. So, certainly, we will be looking at launching prosecutions in relation to those previous seizures. The seizures today, obviously, we need to get our forensic chemists to analyse them and provide us with the expert advice in relation to their structure and their content. Is there a homes or businesses, where did you find these seizures? A business was set up, it was previously set up in Western Australia, and Western Australia moved and brought in a number of laws over there previously, and this company, I believe, was operating in Western Australia also. They set up on the Gold Coast, and as I said, in early October, we've executed a number of search warrants and conducted investigations and seized approximately 100 kilos or equivalent to 100 kilos of end product. The rates that you conducted today, though, were they conducted at businesses in Brisbane at the Gold Coast? It's business in Brisbane and the Gold Coast predominantly. Obviously, it's very timely, and like I say, the misinformation it was getting out, I thought was quite irresponsible, particularly leading into an event such as schoolies, and I think it's very timely to reinforce that these substances, and a lot of the people that have been supplying these substances, have described them to people who have entered the stores as stronger than cannabis, having hypnotic effects, and even comments such as they were trying to obtain more stock leading into schoolies. That's very, very disturbing and disappointing, but I must also say that a number of the stores we did visit today have already removed them from their stock, which was very pleasing to see also. What kind of businesses were there? Look, I don't really want to talk generally about businesses. There's a number of different small retail outlets that have been stocking these items. Pharmacies? No, certainly not pharmacies, not licensed pharmacies. That's the difference between these substances. When you go to a pharmacy, it's manufactured by a recognized and respected manufacturer. It's got a list of the contents that are on there, and it can be substantiated. There's certain standards that are used, and these products, plant material, inactive plant material, is often sprayed with chemical compounds, or the chemical compound is infused into the plant material, and no one really knows, except the person who does it, what those compounds contain, whether they're poisons, whether they're highly toxic chemical compounds, and we have had instances where people have suffered from various illnesses and conditions, heart palpitations, vomiting, high blood pressure, the like, from using synthetic cannabinoids. How many businesses did you see strengths from today? Look, there was approximately 12 businesses visited on the Gold Coast today, and there's also other businesses visited at different times. With information, with people who have contacted the police themselves from different businesses making inquiries, there were a number of businesses visiting in Brisbane, and there's also businesses being visited over the last few days in places like Townsville, Emerald. There was a seizure in Emerald yesterday. A lot of the regional police, and I do want to stress this, is not something that the State Drug Squad is doing alone. The regional police are also being very proactive with this, and Mackay, Townsville, Cairns, and certainly the Sunshine Coast as well. Is there any evidence that these synthetic drugs are being manufactured in Australia? Look, we did have information about one person that was allegedly doing that. We haven't been able to substantiate that at this time. The majority of the substances we're detecting are being brought into the country from other jurisdictions, and like I said before, people need to understand that they're taking a very real risk, both for their personal health and also in terms of leaving themselves open to serious prosecution for criminal offences if they believe some of the propaganda that's on these packages and on the information that comes with them. Has anyone actually been charged? Yeah, I know you said that you're not intentionally charging anyone yet until you can analyse what you've seized, but has anyone been charged yet in Queensland? Look, there was one person charged there, I think, about a week or two ago with a package that had come in. I think it was several kilos of powder, because it can come in already sprayed or already infused in the plant material, but it can come in its raw material, a raw composition as a powder, and then be broken down into a liquid to be infused or put into a capsule or also a tablet. And we did see some tablets today that purport to be synthetic ecstasy or other types of drugs as well. Do these products have names, or are they known on the street by certain names? The original product that came out, I think everyone would recall, was chronic. The people that are making these obviously realised chronic was, it was legislation brought into ban chronic, particularly in relation to a number of jurisdictions. They do change the names of these, but a lot of the time the chemical compound or structures don't change dramatically. We've also got provisions in our Drugs Misuse Act under the definition of dangerous drug, which extends that definition to something that is structurally similar in terms of chemical compound and also has similar pharmacological effects. And as we've seen, some of the marketing advertisements that we see from the business distributing this was clearly marketing it, saying it's stronger than cannabis and talks about the effects of it. So a lot of the people that are involved in this know the effects that these substances can have on people, and certainly, I think that's the message we want to get out. They are very, very dangerous. And we want to certainly tell the parents that are out there, their school leavers and their children are going to events like schoolies and other entertainment events that we're doing everything we can to remove these dangerous substances from the street and certainly from being distributed or a chance for them to take possession of them. What are the more visits this week? Look, certainly police, we've put out some bulletins as a result of recent misinformation to the whole police across Queensland, and we've had a lot of contact with the State Drug Squad. And I would suspect that regional police and also detectives will continue to target people that are involved in possessing or distributing these substances. How do you get this information? Is that a belief that they love us half of all or not legal? Legal. Fake weed. And you know, like clearly the nearly 100 kilos of product that we've seized, we have a statement, an analysis certificate from the forensic chemist to say that is a dangerous drug. So, you know, you can't be more sure than that. The businesses you went to on the Gold Coast today, do you believe they were specifically targeting schoolies? Some of them were definitely. We know from information received from people entering those stores that they made comment about they were trying to source more of the products, particularly specifically for schoolies. And is it just synthetic kind of droids and also you mentioned synthetic ecstasy? Well, there's talk about synthetic ecstasy, synthetic cocaine. Certainly we're concerned about those substances also because the idea of saying they're synthetic cocaine is that they're going to mimic the effects of cocaine and we know that cocaine is and ecstasy have potentially very dangerous effects and side effects for health. Do you have a message for school leavers that are going to be done on the Gold Coast this weekend? Certainly, the message is don't be fooled by anyone that tells you these are legal or that they're not harmful. And my advice to you is stay clear of these substances. Police have traditionally had a very successful schoolies event and I don't expect this one to be any different. Enjoy yourselves. Don't take any risks with your personal health or even risk in terms of committing offences with dangerous substances. I said you said no one's been charged yet but after these drugs are tested do you expect that do you have any idea how many people could be charged if it is confirmed that they are in fact synthetic drugs? Look, it wouldn't be appropriate to pre-empt that at the moment. Certainly if all of those substances come back that we see today come back to be illicit drugs or substances we'd need to conduct some further investigations in relation to substantiating those offences and we will do that if that's the case. I'm just trying to ascertain how many people you're talking to at the moment. How many people are involved in this? Look, as I said before, specifically the drug squad and the Gold Coast there was approximately 12 premises that were visited today. There were also a number of premises visited in the Brisbane area, I'd probably say about another six or eight but there are investigations being carried out by regional police, as I said before, in the Emerald area yesterday and that person was charged. Townsville have conducted investigations up there and the Cairns drug squad also and I know that the Sunshine Coast and the Mackay areas also have a number of lines in Quarry too. How dangerous are these drugs? Look, as I said before, anything that you actually don't know what it contains should be sent to Larm Belt straight away. I certainly wouldn't ingest anything that I didn't know what was made of it and recently we've had advice from our friends at Chemis that have analysed synthetic drugs in tablet form and in powder form. They've contained pesticides, crushed glass, extremely dangerous for human consumption so I really can't emphasise enough that don't ingest something that you don't know what it contains. How much product has been seized today on the Gold Coast? Just over 1.8 kilos and 172 tablets. The number of the premises we visited today are people that have been marketing online and have certainly had a number of marketing strategies there too that support the fact that they know that they're potentially dangerous or have hypnotic side effects. Are they mostly from Australia? Online? Online as you know, it's how long this piece of string is. You could sell them from anywhere and put them in the post, that's basically what it comes in. We work very closely with Australian customs and also with Australia Post and the Australian Federal Police and we have had some significant seizures as a result of those partnerships we've got. Do you think synthetic drugs are becoming more common? Look obviously there's people out there that basically set about to produce drugs for money or for their own interests and they're basically changing the structure of them to avert or to get around different legislation and provisions. It's something that the police and the Attorney General's department work closely with and also our other industry partners. We work closely with the monitor. We need to find a fine line between banning legitimate substances that people use in everyday life or in businesses and banning substances that are diverted to the illicit drug trade. Are the synthetic drugs cheaper to buy? No, as a matter of fact, there's been a lot of money made out of this as you would have seen from the fellow that was on the TV show the other day and some of the substances here are sold for, I would triple the price of what cannabis would be at least, between $20 and $30 a gram. So if you look at the 100 kilos we've seized so far there's a lot of money there. So have they been easier for kids to get their hands on? Is that why people are turning to them? Look, I can't really say that definitively. Obviously the online marketplace is something that young people are obviously very active in and that's a strategy that is used by some criminals involved in illicit drug trade. So certainly the online marketplace makes things a lot more accessible than having to drive to a store or let your fingers do the walking for a matter of that. Have there been any other sort of target areas before school weeks for the drug market? Well look, as I said before we're working closely with the regional police and we're not just looking at Gold Coast, we're looking at Queensland. We want to keep the whole Queensland community safe. Certainly the Gold Coast is very timely at the moment that you've got the schoolies event coming up. You have 50,000 young people attending there and that's been a priority and it always will be for police but we look after the whole community of Queensland.