[420 Girl]

Nimbin’s biggest event of the year, the MardiGrass festival and cannabis law reform rally, will roll on this weekend despite moves by police to close the village’s biggest tourist drawcards, the Hemp Museum and Hemp Bar, during the festival. Organisers of the 16th annual MardiGrass have questioned the timing of the move in the lead-up to the event, which draws thousands of tourists each year, and have criticised it as provocative. They have urged police to reconsider the decision to apply for a court order to close both premises for 72 hours.

The move follows a controversial raid on the village on April Fool’s Day involving up to 50 police officers, including fully-equipped riot-squad officers from Sydney, at which eight arrests were made for cannabis offences and an amount of cannabis and cash was seized.

HEMP Embassy president Michael Balderstone said police told him on Tuesday that, under the Restricted Premises Act of 1943, they would request a magistrate close the museum and bar because they believed drugs had been sold from the premises in the past. The act stipulates that, where police have reasonable grounds for suspecting the premises were being used for the supply of drugs or that drugs were kept on the premises, they could request the closure of the premises.

“This came right out of the blue and is no doubt an extreme provocation which will upset a lot of people in this town,” Mr Balderstone said. “It’s not going to make any difference to MardiGrass and will be seen for what it is: a provocation to stir up the locals. It is totally contrary to what police keep saying that they want to ensure a safe festival, so how on earth is this going to help? Police and community relations over this are at an all time low – this will only spark anger and resentment and cause chaos where what we really need is visible policing and harm minimisation.”

Mr Balderstone said townsfolk saw the museum as a community space that had become a de-facto youth centre for Nimbin since its youth club was closed down two years ago. He said he would challenge the order in court tomorrow (Friday).

Detective Inspector Steve Clarke told media that information gathered in relation to the recent raids allowed police to make the application under the Restricted Premises Act. Inspector Clarke said there was broad community support for the crackdown. “We’re receiving extremely favourable comments from a large number of people in the Nimbin community, particularly in respect of targetting dealers in the community,” Inspector Clarke said. “We’re getting some very positive feedback. I think it’s only fair to say that obviously those people who continue to break the law will continue to say that the police are doing the wrong thing.”

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