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Nimbin shop owners raided today. Sep 11, 2014

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Source: http://m.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/crime-court/popular-alternative-lifestyle-town-of-nimbin-becomes-target-of-police-drug-raids/story-fnje8bkv-1227055327565

Popular alternative lifestyle town of Nimbin becomes target of police drug raids

THE grass may be greener on the other side of Nimbin for residents this afternoon, with reports of widespread police raids in the town known for its relaxed attitude to drugs.

Police have arrested eight people and seized two kilograms of cannabis after a cafe and bookshop were raided as part of an ongoing drug operation in the Nimbin area.

Seventy police, along with specialist officers, swooped on the town as part of Operation Oleary established by the Richmond Local Area Command.

Its alleged the arrested have been involved in the ongoing supply of drugs; including cannabis, LSD, MDMA and prescription medication.

Police will also allege the two businesses raided were selling prohibited drugs from the stores.

The operation remains ongoing, with a simultaneous drug dog operation targeting the entire township.

A third search warrant is being executed at a residential address in Jiggi, where police have allegedly located a large amount of mature cannabis plants.

One business owner, who did not want to be named, said police arrived at about 11am and started randomly drug testing people in the street.

She said there was a drug forensic bus, the riot squad and sniffer dogs in the towns main street.

Theyre randomly drug testing people in the street, swabbing them, and they arrested someone for swearing.

They raided a bookshop in town and the Oasis Café, closed them down for business and went through all their customers there.

Its bad for the town because everyones just minding their own business and day-trippers are here to enjoy the scenery and it puts a very horrible vibe on the place.

Richmond Local Area Commander Superintendent Greg Martin said todays arrests are the culmination of six months work by his Drug Unit.

As a result of this operation, we have dismantled a criminal group we allege was responsible for supplying significant amounts of drugs throughout the Nimbin area, Superintendent Martin said.

Im aware of the reputation this area has had for a number of years, in regard to drug use and supply.

Concerns from members of the community have triggered todays action, and the results should demonstrate that we are committed to working on this issue.

Those charged with ongoing drug supply face up to 25 years jail. We will continue to target drug offenders and treat them with the seriousness they deserve, he said.

The operation is still underway. Further seizures and arrests are expected.

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2kgs of buds and 8 arrests. Only cost us taxpayers 70 police wages and 6 months to do it.

Sheeeeeet, that is the most economically unjustifiable police operation I've heard of in the last 6 months...

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Many locals in Nimbin may be flouting the law, but I'd like to think that the police are on the wrong-side of history by enforcing prohibition.

Edited by GHBeer
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i like that they brought a riot squad just in case. those druggies...

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A tad over 4 pound? Wow. And during slow season. I feel all safer and shit

Sounds like they had a lovely day out in the sunshine and didn't have to work too hard, I hope nobody broke a nail

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i like that they brought a riot squad just in case. those druggies...

My thoughts exactly. I mean it's Nimbin FFS. People are too stoned to find the Hungry Jacks (or indeed, to realize that there is no Hungry Jacks) let alone start a riot.

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i like that they brought a riot squad just in case. those druggies...

Yeah like the stoners are going to start a riot.... they are more likely to just lay down and do some cloud watching

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disgraceful. where is their cost benefit analysis like every over government department? oh wait they dont want people to realise how much money they waste to feel like big men....

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it's all politics man

it's all politics

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MetGasCo payback? who knows.
But be on notice though, its apparently a 3 days operation.

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torsten, since you know the law best

Theyre randomly drug testing people in the street, swabbing them,

I've always wondered if this is actually legal? I thought it was legal if your driving a car, but as a passenger or walking down the street, can they really swab you? because that's profiling... even if they don't charge you it'll be on record for eg. if your pulled over in the future.

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seriously...they can swab you...as in collect saliva + cell tissue = DNA...........so your DNA ends up on p data base?

Nimbin was one of my most favourite places ......saw my 1st plata puss there (2)...a lot of cloud watching

Edited by Dreamwalker.

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Its not illegal to be stoned, so unless they have evidence or a legitimate suspicion of you holding or trafficking drugs I don't see why they could swab you. Unless being in a known drugs trafficking location puts you at automatic suspicion or they were using dogs?

That said, the cops can manipulate things just about however they like and unless you are confident in your rights or dont have anything else to hide they can manipulate and mislead people into 'volunteering' for a swab. And they are very good at it.

Edited by AndyAmine.
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I think there is a misunderstanding about the swabbing. As far as I know it is not legal for them to take saliva or urine samples unless you are driving or on parole, so the rumour that random people were being tested would not be true. More likely is that they had a mobile lab of sorts to analyse any green material immediately and hence avoid false arrests [which get expensive in compensation]. They may also have swabbed surfaces to see if cannabis was present in the buildings at some stage.

As for it 'not being ilegal to be stoned', please keep in mind that administration and self administrationn are indeed drug offences. Technically if someone is seen consuming a drug, a drug test could be used to make a case if all other evidence has been removed [eg if a bud was swallowed]. I am not aware of this ever having been done though and there may well be caselaw to override this.

Cops are good at manipulating because most citizens don't bother knowing their rights.

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thanks for clearing that up torsten!

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Yeah for sure.

My knowledge on the matter is very limited to my days in the drug/alcohol industry in Vic circa 1995
But as far I understand unless you admit to administering the drugs, have paraphernalia on you, or some other crime they have no right to detain you, search you or charge you (unlike the USA)

Otherwise no one would ever report overdose, use needle exchanges or related services etc. and I seem to remember that these parts of the law being in place at east partially to help with those very reasons.

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Took them 6 months to find bud in nimbim lol... first time i went there i found it before id got out the car.

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bahahaha, well said and totally accurate.

why didn't they just rip a few bushes out of the ground, the mass of dirt on the roots alone would have been more impressive.

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My thoughts exactly. I mean it's Nimbin FFS. People are too stoned to find the Hungry Jacks (or indeed, to realize that there is no Hungry Jacks) let alone start a riot.

I was reading your post about being to stoned to find hungry jacks and I though "WTF there is hungry Jacks in Nimbin? I have never seen it........then I read the rest of your post :)

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