15 arrested at Nimbin MardiGrass Festival

[Oz]

Police have arrested 15 people on charges ranging from drug possession to unlicensed driving at the Nimbin MardiGrass Festival in northern New South Wales.

 

The three-day event, which aims to lobby the government for drug law reform, has attracted mounted police, drug detection dogs and random breath testing units.

 

More than 10,000 tourists visit the town on each day of the festival.

 

Police made nearly 100 arrests during last year's event.

 

Meanwhile a hemp researcher leading a forum at the festival says New South Wales' anti-drug laws are preventing developments that could help save the planet.

 

Keith Bolton says masonry products which combine hemp with lime or reactive products to create a concrete-like substance are being developed.

 

Dr Bolton says that while the production of conventional concrete is part of the greenhouse problem, the hemp-based building products would reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

 

"New South Wales is lagging behind the rest of the states and unfortunately Australia is lagging behind the rest of the developed world," he said.

 

"I've only been growing hemp through licence, through New South Wales Health.

 

"However, other states, including Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and I believe Western Australia have commercial licences so people can actually commercially grow hemp."

Author: ABC

Date: 05/05/07

Source: ABC News Online

Copyright: © 2007 ABC

[nakkas]

15 compared to last yers one hundered aint too bad tho i bet alotta people are gonna get a letter in the mail after been tested at the drug testing vans on the road leading into nimbin..

[Oz]

AUSTRALIA'S cannabis capital Nimbin, in northern NSW, is celebrating its 34th Mardi Grass festival this weekend under the banner 007-Licenced to Mull.

 

Police arrested 15 people there yesterday, on day one of the three-day festival that attracts 10,000 tourists each year to the small but lush Northern Rivers town west of Byron Bay.

 

Ten charges related to possessing prohibited drugs, warrants and unlicensed driving were laid yesterday, as well, six cannabis cautions were issued.

 

The largest seizures of marijuana were 400g of cannabis and 159 cannabis cookies.

 

In NSW, the cultivation, selling and possession of cannabis is illegal.

 

In Nimbin, however, all three activities continue unabated under a high tolerance for cannabis, with the open buying, selling and consumption of the locally grown weed.

 

"We're here to support the Nimbin community hold this annual event by making it safe for everyone," local area commander Superintendent Bruce Lyons said ahead of today's bong throwing competition.

 

The main aim of Mardi Grass is to campaign for the legalisation of cannabis, as well as being an important community event.

Author: By Paul Carter

Date: 05/05/07

Source: Sunday Telegraph

Copyright: 2006 News Limited

[Ozzy420]

Just got back from nimbin and dident see that many coppers my self, was a good weekend...

[Untitled]

Yea the cops didnt seem to bad didnt see many tehre or on teh way home.. i seen 1 fellar get arrest and he was just standing there with his hands up co operating and a good 5 other cops runnning from 100m away... was pretty over the top i thought. Surprised they didn't arrest any1 for fighting seen a few fights on friday nite.

[Mulcontent]

Aaargh I made it home alive

Got pulled over by the bacon just out of town and got alcohol tested , then I was " randomly " selected to be drug tested - no result for the pigs tho , despite being a heavy smoker since 1984 and consuming tons of weed and hash this weekend my result was negative my last sesh was at 2.30 pm that day and I got tested at roughly 5.30pm so go figure

I didn't do the test as they asked as well , when told to rub my tongue onto the roof of my mouth to stimulate some saliva - I didn't , also my mouth was that dry from being stoned there was fuck all saliva to gather I believe your honour

Story and pics on what I reckon was the best MG so far coming soon when I've got my head together enough

Hi to the Ozstoners I met as well

[jonx]

haha Good stuff beating the saliva testing there, Mulcontent.

 

Living in Melb I'm half expecting to see one of the buses whenever I get in the car. So far it hasn't happened, but I'm kind of interested to see if it'll be accurate.

 

Anyway, ABC news reckons >100 people were arrested.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1915920.htm

 

Police made more than 100 arrests at a drug-law reform rally on the New South Wales north coast over the weekend, but say they were happy with crowd behaviour at the event.

 

Now in its 34th year, the Mardi Grass festival attracts thousands of visitors to the village of Nimbin, near Lismore.

 

This year police were using sniffer dogs, roadblocks and a driver-testing bus to monitor festival-goers.

 

Police say more than 15 kilograms of drugs were seized, including cannabis cake and leaf, ecstasy, and LSD.

 

Five drivers were charged with driving under the influence of illegal drugs.

 

Senior Constable Michael Hogan says two officers were injured while on duty, one breaking a bone after falling heavily during a chase.

 

But he says police were pleased with the behaviour of the vast majority of the crowd.

[WantDaChronic]

i saw a couple of police doing laps around nimbin, didnt see any going in though sneaky pricks setup their drug testing station like 20km out of nimbin in this area that was hidden by mountains in virtually every direction and you literally didnt get to see them until they could well and truely see you and it was too late to turn around

 

i dont think the police were interested in any drug taking at mardigrass until it risked other people, ie. you get drunk/stoned and drive around, throw beer bottles, etc. I also think that because on my way from nimbin to lismore i jumped in a taxi which was waved through the drug testing area so glad we didnt get checked though, i was off me head something crazy at the time and had like 2g of bud in my suitcase which i would of lost hehehe

 

btw, to anyone interested if you want to beat the police in the area around mardigrass, i highly recommend taking the 8am bus from the lismore transit centre. being advertised as a school bus, but also letting on normal people makes for an awesome cover, but i gotta admit i felt well and truely out of place with all these 8yo kids around me hehehe getting out of nimbin is a little harder though, i recommend going by public transport and stashing your drugs on the bus or in the taxi instead of your luggage, that will make it alot harder to prove its your stash if found

[Wezz]

To be honest I expected a higher (larger) Police presence than what I saw.

There were a couple of coppers walked through the caravan Park, but I only saw them once and the only other cops were either in cullen St. or on the road out of Nimbin to Lismore.

 

All in all a great weekend...

 

...and "Hey" to the guy in the "Oz Stoners" singlet who was also staying in the caravan park. I said G'day and had a bit of a quick chat about the website.

[bongonaussie]

...and "Hey" to the guy in the "Oz Stoners" singlet who was also staying in the caravan park. I said G'day and had a bit of a quick chat about the website.

 

That would be me...sorry if I didnt say too much...not sure who's who..

 

see you next year man..