HIPPIES INVITE THE POLICE TO SMOKE THE PEACE PIPE and NIMBIN APRIL FOOLS DAY RAID, WAITING FOR THE TRUTH TO COME OUT “The last two evenings in Nimbin have seen mini convoys of up to six police cars cruising the deserted main street of Nimbin’s tiny village. The cost must be prohibitive but the propaganda to justify targeting Nimbin is the real joke”, said Michael Balderstone, Hemp Embassy President. “Instead of this waste of money we need Senior Police to join us at MardiGrass for sane discussion on alternative strategies for dealing with cannabis use. But will anyone take us, the users, seriously?” “It is not the Police’s fault, they are the meat in the sandwich, ’just doing their job’ so to speak, but we need their support in making legal changes, as has happened in the UK. Policing Nimbin with a National Party local MP has been costing a fortune for years, you’d think the Labor Party might be a fraction different.” “One option is a trial of a decriminalised supply of cannabis and at MardiGrass this year Dr. Alex Wodak from St. Vincents Hospital will be presenting a model for regulated and taxable cannabis supply. He will be supported by Paul Wilson, Professor of Criminology at Bond Uni. There are several working models overseas to consider and in the MardiGrass “Beyond Prohibition Forum’ we will have visitors from those countries to give us first hand accounts of how it works”. “We are especially inviting the law makers, the politicians, to come and hear these ideas borne of necessity out of desperation from worlds politicians rarely see. We also invite parents to the MardiGrass forums and it is worth remembering the Al Capone era in America ended when mothers marched against prohibition. Of course everyone is welcome, but we would especially love to see the gag taken off government employees like police and health professionals so they could join in the Forum”. At some point even the most hard headed must come round to seeing some merit in sitting down and talking a different approach to Nimbin’s unique situation. A few facts to consider please: A fast growing indigenous population in Nimbin would rather smoke yarndi, than get drunk. The local police would rather they did too! Dealing or stealing? Nimbin’s ‘refugee camp from the war on drugs’ sees all sorts of disadvantaged people finding their way here to ‘the last bus stop’ hoping to score a smoke, which is their favourite pain reliever. The catch is, they have little money and no land to grow their own so they join the growing throng of street “dealers” trying to catch the eye of someone visiting Nimbin to buy pot. They get a small cut, probably a smoke, for organising the deal. A huge risk just for a joint shows how desperate they are. It’s impossible for the police to bust all these people who rarely possess anything. Many backpackers come from countries where cannabis use is regulated. The current situation is teaching young people bad habits to say the least. No wonder disrespect is a boom industry. We notice young people in and out of jail lose their fear of it and even enjoy the gangster rap with police. Jail offers credibility in some cases, as well as study opportunities and a reliable bed and food. MardiGrass program details growing on www.nimbinmardigrass.com On April Fools Day the police ( with Lismore City Council inspectors} came with their media unit and supplied all the footage for channels Seven, Nine & Ten’s news stories that night, but the raid netted so little the story barely made it into the Sydney or Brisbane news. “The police media release announcing the raids came out at 11.41am. At 11.30 the search began in Nimbin. They arrived in riot gear, screaming and yelling like it was Nim Bin Ladin’s very own cave. They were in full battle dress and surrounded Nimbin’s two primary off the street (which is covered by cameras live to the copshop) tourist attractions, the Nimbin Museum and the HEMP Embassy, and cordoning them off for searches until well after the many school buses had unloaded. Hippies love their children and are angry about this insensitivity. Unable to answer back the battle dressed riot squad were fair pickings for some cheeky Nimbin kids who have grown up in a “criminalised cannabis culture”, other kids were shocked and scared at the show of force in their village. Many in the village think it is just anti-terrorist training on harmless hippies.” The pages and pages of Property Seizure Forms of what was confiscated in their raid is all tabled on www.hempembassy.net “Many of the items were not prohibited and will be returned when the police discover they are not illegal. Many of the food items were just that, with no cannabis in them.” “The cash collected, around five thousand dollars from so many sources was clearly no big deal. The Hemp Bar Activist’s Kiosk run by volunteers has no bank account but gets donations for drinks, etc. It apparently had ice cream containers full of ten and twenty cent coins. Perhaps this is the ‘large quantity of cash’ seized by police from our study of money listed on their Property Seizure forms.” “The eight arrests were in fact mostly Cannabis Cautions. We reckon five cautions for personal amounts, two small cannabis charges and one young Aboriginal male who was in breach of bail conditions by being in Nimbin. EIGHT ARRESTS! BIG DEAL!” “The five kilos of cannabis they claim to have seized was in fact mostly cookies making up the weight. FLOUR AND WATER! The “plants” they seized were in fact one tiny straggly male plant no one had noticed in the back yard of the HEMP Embassy! The cannabis ‘suppositories’, (ouch!), seized from the Hemp Bar we hear are tobacco plugs!” Further details of the raid with pictures and movies www.hempembassy.net Embassy… ph 02 6689 1842 ah 66897525