Nimbin Mardigrass Press Release April 26, 2007

NIMBIN MARDIGRASS PRESS RELEASE: 26 APRIL 2007 WHERE’S WALLYBAGO? CAN YOU SEE HIM ANYWHERE IN THE PICTURE? Lose a bago? The Nimbin HEMP Embassy is putting up a reward for anyone who can spot the new NSW Police Winnebago saliva drug testing bus around our beautiful Northern Rivers. "It’s disappeared from view," said President Michael Balderstone, “and there’s a free MardiGrass weekend pass for the first person who spots the Winnebago and phones us at the Embassy (0266891842) each day from now until MardiGrass on May 5th and 6th.” “It hasn’t been seen since the Blues festival and there’s been no report on how successful it was either. If it’s meant to be a deterrent I’d have thought they’d be bragging about how many stoned drivers they’ve caught up here in the infamous Northern Rivers! But not a word.” “Probably because they haven’t caught many and they don’t want to be embarrassed. The politicians who set them up have some explaining to do. We bought a box of the testing kits and found them to be seriously inadequate in testing for cannabis and all the official research says the same. And each throwaway little plastic kit costs $40. The $10 million taken from the health budget and the $2 from each drivers licence fee wasted on this Winnebago is shameful.” "How many drivers were tested? How many were positive? How many were false positives? Does this in any way improve road safety? These are the real questions. Would they use the breathalyser if it was unreliable and inconsistent?” MardiGrass organisers have a crew of MUNCH vehicles to Monitor Unfair Nimbin Cannabis Hype this year. “We’ve organised licensed non-stoners to be out on the approach roads to Nimbin making sure Police don’t turn people away from MardiGrass like they did last year. Hopefully this year the policing of MardiGrass will return to sanity and we’ve been assured by Commander Lyons there will be less Police this year and no riot squad. Last year we found the ‘Public Order and Riot Squad’ way over the top and even provocative at times. They’ve got better things to do and people don’t come here to riot.” Our saliva testing results -- http://www.hempembassy.net/hempe/testaliva.html. Latest MardiGrass program -- http://www.nimbinmardigrass.com/2007/program07.html. Further info at the Embassy 0266891842 a/h 0266897525.