Pubdate: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: 2001 News Limited {YEAR} Contact: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/35 Author: Fiona Cameron Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) SMOKE DREAMS UNDER THE COSH Last Month's Police Raids In Nimbin Have Delivered The Local Cannabis Market Back To The Street Dealers, Fiona Cameron Reports THE officer-in-charge of Nimbin Police Station has been on sick leave these past few months. Contrary to local talk, police say it is not stress leave. ``There's no such thing,'' says Richmond local area command officer Detective Inspector Bryan Boulton. ``He's on sick leave.'' But stress must be part and parcel of policing in Nimbin. In a town that is pretty much known for one thing -- drugs -- officers with a community policing charter clearly have a difficult job. And in a town that also has been riding the wave of growth in international tourism -- the hot spot of the lucrative young backpacker market -- being at the front line of the war on drugs must have become that much tougher in recent times. Like its rebellious flower children of 1973, Nimbin is still failing to toe the line. Pot politics is almost always at the top of the public agenda in this quirky NSW north coast village. The official line is that people are arrested for drug use and possession if they openly flout the law. What the reality has been in Nimbin for some time is that, unless you light up a joint in front of a police officer and blow the smoke in his face, you're pretty safe. Richmond local area commander Superintendent Barry Audsley says publicly that drug policing in Nimbin focuses on heroin, not cannabis. But two issues -- sniffer dogs and police raids last month on Nimbin's cannabis cafes -- have brought police activities on the north coast into the spotlight. Nimbin police do make drug arrests and issue cautions -- including, legend has it, the time a young Japanese tourist went into the station to complain about being ripped off in a pot deal, producing his purchase as evidence. Such a tale speaks volumes about Nimbin's ambience. So open has the town been -- until last month -- that many tourists do not even realise that marijuana is illegal here. Starting this week, police have allocated two target action group officers to patrol the beat in Nimbin each weekday, but say the sniffer dogs have gone back to Sydney and will be used only on special operations. Annual police raids on the hills around Nimbin attract much publicity and snare a few growers, but have no effect whatsoever on the supply of marijuana on the street, according to the Nimbin Hemp Embassy. It estimates that about $7 million worth of marijuana is traded in Nimbin each year. With about 10,000 people in town one weekend last month for the annual Mardi Grass harvest festival, police adopted the same approach as in previous years -- stand back and let it all roll on. About six police wandered the beat in pairs, but there was only one arrest, for a traffic offence. As in previous years, festival organiser the Nimbin Hemp Embassy took responsibility for security with its guerilla ``jungle patrol''. After nine successful festivals, even critics acknowledge that the hippies have learned a thing or two about successful event management. This year's festival capped the end of a particularly high season for many traders and businesses in Nimbin because in the past year the cannabis cafes have been an extra tourist drawcard. Built on the Amsterdam model, the cafes offered small quantities of marijuana for sale over the counter at set prices. Under the auspices of a local committee that says it liaised openly with police, politicians, public servants and even members of the judiciary, up to six cafes have been operating ``transparently'', according to Hemp Embassy spokesman Michael Balderstone. ``We understand that lots of these politicians and police can't be seen to be giving us official approval, but we all wanted the same thing -- to clean up the street scene -- and we felt we had unofficial nods and silent and tacit approval from the authorities and the Government,'' Balderstone says. ``The joke is, they sent undercover cops in to find out about these cannabis cafes and they couldn't find any evidence because, unlike on the street, it [cannabis] was never pushed on anyone. You had to ask for it over the counter. We had regulated prices, it was never sold to anyone under 18, it came with health warnings and it was only sold in small quantities.'' Since the cafe raids, Nimbin's famously easygoing lifestyle is no more, and the mood has turned to fear and trepidation. ``I feel betrayed and bewildered more than anything,'' Balderstone says. ``We consulted with everyone we could, at very high levels, and told them all about the cafe trial and what we were doing.'' As it turns out, that wasn't enough. On Monday, May 15, about 35 police, some armed and accompanied by two sniffer dogs, swooped. They targeted two cafes, locked doors, searched patrons and charged two people with charges related to supplying cannabis. Police say 10 tourists were cautioned. ``One phone call would have been enough,'' says Balderstone. ``We would have closed down the cafes with one phone call if we had been given any warning.'' The economic impact is already hurting Nimbin. ``Business is way down in the past few weeks,'' says one shop proprietor. ``You can see the difference since the raids. The word gets around quickly. People aren't going to come here if they think they are going to be searched and there'll be sniffer dogs everywhere.'' BUT many locals say the tragedy of the police cafe raids is that they delivered the cannabis market back to the street dealers. ``There had been a real difference to the atmosphere on the street in the past 12 months,'' says businessman Robin Archbold. He says he has battled for most of his 14 years as a real estate agent in Nimbin to stop street dealers approaching people as they peruse properties for sale in his front window. ``The cafes added to the ambience here that people come to experience,'' Archbold says. ``They were a fabulous success. They were making their mark and had just started to really bite into the street-dealing scene. You could see the difference just walking down the street.'' Archbold surveyed every business operating in Nimbin and asked whether they were in favour of regulated cannabis supply through cafes or other outlets (40 out of 42 said yes) and whether the cafes had helped reduce the street scene (75 per cent said yes). With the cafes biting into the street-dealing scene, all had not been happy on the streets in the past year. The Hemp Embassy had a window broken in an attack it says was from dealers who saw its cafe scheme as a police-protected racket. ``Our opponents came from many sides,'' says one of the cafe proprietors. Balderstone says it is ironic that the Government is spending ``a fortune to promote north coast tourism and another fortune busting the backpackers who come here''. Boulton says it is ``absolute rubbish'' to suggest police had turned a blind eye to the cannabis cafes. ``There were reports over a period of time, but you need hard evidence to get search warrants,'' he says. Undercover officers who went into the cafes in two earlier operations were not offered cannabis, he says, but in the latest operation, in April, police had observed evidence of supply in two cafes. Balderstone, the federal president of the HEMP Party, says the party will run a candidate in the July 14 Aston by-election in Melbourne. Candidates also will be run in marginal electorates across the country in the federal election. The cafe trial had been a huge help in showing how regulated outlets might work, he says. ``We'd all talked about it for years, but now at least people know how sane and safe it could be. In that way it's been a huge success and new models will be submitted to the Government to try [to] get a sanctioned trial up.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe