Carrying drugs through an airport in 1969

[__mermaid]

My characters are flying from Chicago to London in 1969 and I need to find out how easy it's going to be for them to carry drugs with them (marijuana and speed). I've searched round but I can't find the information I need, though some of it's still helpful. There's plenty about how airport security was stepped up in the 60s because of increased

Comments

[annoyedwabbit]

This is not specific information, for which I apologise, but some acquaintances of mine used to sell drugs. This would have been in the early 1980s in the US, for context. To get the (mostly cocaine, if I recall correctly) from Mexico to the US, they just put it in their luggage and proceeded as usual.

[__mermaid]

Thanks! I'm just trying to wrap my head round a time when there WASN'T a risk of being wrestled to the floor in O'Hare for the crime of (I assume) having a large red suitcase. ;) Because that wasn't fun.

[mr_mitts]

I don't know about the American side, but those arriving in Britain in 1969 would certainly discover that HM Custom's Waterguard was still opening all bags and packages that came through (they would be searched, sealed and then marked with a piece of coloured chalk depending on the day/time/waterguard officer etc.). Being searched was not uncommon, though it mainly depended on the officer's prerogative.

[__mermaid]

Thanks! It's not a major plot point or anything but I obsess over the tinest details, that's really helpful. :)

[kelenar]

Anecdotally, I know that at least one of Hunter S. Thompson's articles (which would probably put it in the 1965-1980 range) had a big bit at the end about how he flew into an airport while out of his mind on a few things and carrying quite a stockpile. His big worry, as I remember it, was that he'd get noticed for looking/acting weird and have his luggage searched as a result. I don't remember that he went through any real security measures, but he seemed well aware that it was a possibility if he stepped out of line.

I'll try to look up the specific article and post details here when I get home, if nobody's given you a better example.

[kelenar]

I should have mentioned that this was him flying into an American airport from another country... somewhere in Central/South America or the Caribbean, I believe.

[quantumckat]

It was "The Great Shark Hunt". When the OP mentioned speed my brain automatically jumped to the scene where he's got speed stuck under his shoe laces and all the little pills started popping out onto the floor as the authorities were taxing his rum. :D

[kelenar]

Yeeeeeep, that sounds like the scene I was thinking about.

[dejla]

A detail you might like, since I have no definite answer -- Arlo Guthrie recorded a song in the sixties called "Coming into Los Angeles", and the lyrics went as follows

[__mermaid]

Thank you! I do know that song but I've not heard it in ages, so thanks for reminding me. :)

[dejla]

You're welcome! Glad to offer any help.

[randomstasis]

for marijuana, your primary problem was sniffing dogs- I knew people who successfully smuggled smallish quatities in interiors of things that should have been empty or full of other substances: cigarette packs, tampons, cigars, shoe soles, toothpaste tubes, peanutbutter jars, etc. Hash was more popular coming the other way, though- smaller, harder to identify, etc.

Speed- just replace a prescription medicine with the pills. :)
the increased security was for bombs and weapons, not drugs.

[__mermaid]

Ace! That's really helpful, I hadn't actually thought as far as actual methods of transportation. Thanks :)

[pinkdormouse]

Someone I used to know lived in Kent in the eighties and claimed that he regularly smuggled hash in from Amsterdam by taking the tobacco out of a cigarette, inserting the hash, then putting a bit of the tobacco back in on top. Replace cigarette in packet, repeat for next cigarette, etc.

No idea how easy this was in actual fact.

[randomstasis]

you're welcome!
and that being the case- this book may interest you
How to Hide Almost Anything: Or, Come Home, America, and Find Your Treasures Where You Stashed Them

by David Krotz