BY NICK FREDMAN
LISMORE — The streets outside Lismore courthouse were enlivened on June 4 by chanting protesters, anti-corporate banners, and clouds of illicit smoke. The 200-strong crowd had gathered in solidarity with three people arrested for cannabis offences in a police raid on Nimbin, an action which had used the legally dubious method of sniffer dog searches.
Andrew Kavasilas, Donald Fuggle and Allen Moore were arrested on May 14 when 35 police and two dogs swooped on three Nimbin cafes. Residents reacted angrily to the raid, more than 100 of them following the police to the local station and chanting outside.
Less than two weeks before the raid, thousands of people attended the annual "Mardi Grass" festival in Nimbin, where police declined to act on the open trade in, and use of, cannabis. The festival included a 5000-strong rally demanding drug law reform, and was a peaceful event, largely policed by the community.
The very success of the Mardi Grass had encouraged local conservative forces to act, according to Lisa Yeates from the Nimbin Hemp Embassy.
"[Editor of the Lismore daily, the Northern Star] Dean Gould demanded the police minister enforce the law, and [local National Party MP] Thomas George thumped the table in state parliament demanding a zero tolerance approach", Yeates told Green Left Weekly.
Yeates questioned George's "anti-drugs" credentials, pointing out that he made a considerable amount of money from his ownership of a pub in the northern NSW town of Casino.
At the June 4 rally, speakers from the Nimbin Hemp Embassy, the Nimbin Peace Bus, Socialist Alliance and the Greens denounced laws that do nothing to address the social and health problems created by criminalised drug use. Many also warned that the use of sniffer dogs was part of wider moves to increase police powers.
"Persecution, not pot, is the issue for me", Graeme Dunston of the Peace Bus told Green Left Weekly. Dunston pointed out that the increased use of sniffer dogs has itself become a profitable enterprise for breeders and trainers, as is the private prison industry, which is filled with people on minor drug charges.
In addition to the increased powers granted last year to stop and search people, in April Bob Carr's NSW Labor government announced a raft of new laws.
Police will be able to arrest anyone entering or leaving any premises they declare a "drug house", can subject anyone arrested under the legislation to a forced medical examination and can arrest anyone refusing to "move on" in a public place.
NSW Law Society president Nick Meagher has described the legislation as "Nazi-style" because it "rips out the basic legal tenet of innocence until proven guilty".
Both Yeates and Dunston argue that cannabis, a plant with numerous industrial and medicinal as well as recreational uses, needs to be legalised, not just decriminalised.
"Decriminalising is still a prohibitionist position and it does not diminish the powers police have for search, surveillance and harassment of people who choose to use cannabis", Dunston told Green Left Weekly. They argue for regulated legal distribution through venues such as cafes, as well as legal "growing your own".
There is contention in Nimbin cannabis reform circles about the attitude to take to the prohibition of other drugs, with some arguing that cannabis alone should be discussed by the campaign while others oppose safe rooms for injecting drug users.
Dunston, however, argues that there is a general "war on drugs" and consistent supporters of democratic rights should push for the regulated legalisation of all drugs, with, for example, heroin available on prescription.
Yeates agrees and told Green Left Weekly that if a community like Nimbin that suffers major drug-related problems was allowed to legally trade in cannabis, it would have much greater income to provide counselling and rehabilitation for those affected by drug abuse.
The campaign will continue with rallies outside Byron Bay courthouse on July 4, when well-known Nimbin environmental campaigner Rusty Harris will appear after being charged during police raids there, and August 6 at Lismore courthouse when Kavasilas and Fuggle reappear.