![](\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/ffximage\/2008\/05\/03\/nimbin_040508_wideweb__470x315,0.jpg\")
Police Search festival goers for drugs during Nimbin’s Mardi Grass Festival. <\/p>\n
By: skip<\/p>\n
Complaints of not enough Marijuana at Festival due to police busts!<\/p>\n
Police Search festival goers for drugs during Nimbin’s Mardi Grass Festival. <\/p>\n
A POLICE clampdown on cannabis smokers at Nimbin’s annual Mardi Grass festival was allowing it to be taken over by amphetamine and alcohol use, an organiser said.<\/p>\n
"The crowd are complaining there’s not enough pot," Mardi Grass parade marshall Graeme Dunstan said of this weekend’s festival.<\/p>\n
"There’s too much alcohol and too much speed, which people bring in from outside. The police go for cannabis because it’s easy to spot."<\/p>\n
Police have vowed to stamp out drugs in Nimbin. They sent officers from the riot, drug and mounted squads, plus regular officers, as an estimated 20,000 people gathered for a weekend of music, pot smoking and protest to demand the legalisation of cannabis.<\/p>\n
"We are seeking to eliminate the supply of prohibited drugs," Richmond Local Area Command acting Superintendent Steve Clarke said on Friday. "We will not tolerate any breaches of any laws."<\/p>\n
Michael Balderstone, president of the Nimbin Hemp Embassy, said the Nimbin community was furious about the police’s approach. "You may as well get a stick and poke it in a hornet’s nest. It’s pointless. You can put us in jail for 20 years and you won’t change our opinions."<\/p>\n
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Police obtained a court order on Friday to close the Nimbin Hemp Bar and Hemp Museum for 72 hours. Police alleged the bar and museum were known drug-dealing premises.<\/p>\n
A raid on the museum on April 1 allegedly recovered four kilograms of cannabis. Eight people were charged with drug offences.<\/p>\n
Mr Balderstone said the fact that only cannabis was found showed that Nimbin had got rid of its hard drugs problem. "We had ice [crystal methamphetamine] four or five years ago but the community’s worked very hard to get ice out of town," he said.<\/p>\n
Police were also enforcing alcohol-free zones at the festival, acting Superintendent Clarke said.<\/p>\n
Debbie Guest, owner of the Nimbin Hotel, said the police clampdown had been "huge", with strict enforcement of responsible service of alcohol rules.<\/p>\n
"We’ve never had trouble at Mardi Grass," she said. "People come for a good time."<\/p>\n
Graham Way, 71, a Nimbin resident for 50 years, said the clampdown was a good thing. "You get harassed going up the street by people peddling drugs," he said.<\/p>\n
Mardi Grass events include the Hemp Olympix, including a plantathlon, bong throwing and joint rolling.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: Sydney Morning Herald<\/a><\/p>\n This follows upon the invasion on April Fools Day of Nimbin by an army of police including Sydney Riot Police in a raid on a few peaceful businesses. It’s becoming apparent that the people of Nimbin are now some pawn in a political game as they hardly found anything worth busting with only two cannabis related arrests coming out of it. Read about the April Fool’s bust here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Views: 24110<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: skip Complaints of not enough Marijuana at Festival due to police busts! Police Search festival goers for drugs during Nimbin’s Mardi Grass Festival. A POLICE clampdown on cannabis smokers at Nimbin’s annual Mardi Grass festival was allowing it to be taken over by amphetamine and alcohol use, an organiser said. "The crowd are complaining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mj-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}