The Hunter River “sex-drug” drama of 1964
In the early decades of the colony of New South Wales, somebody planted hemp in the Hunter Valley. They were probably thinking that, if the plant thrived, then they could make money selling it to make rope and canvas which was much-needed for sailing ships, in particular. This long-ago farmer could hardly have suspected that in about a century-and-a-half, the crop - by that time naturalised along the river bank between Singleton and Maitland - would stir up a national moral panic among citizens worried that a shocking "sex drug" was being plucked for free from…