Nimbin drug blitz to clean up town

[foolsbreath]

THE happy, harmless, hippy image of Nimbin has gone up in smoke.

After years of turning a blind eye to its 'alternative' and illegal drug culture, NSW police have vowed to take a zero-tolerance approach to bring the toking town back into line with the rest of the country.

Residents yesterday told how 'harmless' pot smoking had made way for harder drugs such as speed and ice, with the town now divided into two sections. On one side of the street live the pot smokers, and on the other are those addicted to the 'bad stuff'.

"It's sad to see, but slowly but surely the pot-smokers are crossing the road," said one resident who did not want to be named.

"Everyone thinks we're just a little hippy town but there's a nasty side to the alternative lifestyle.

"It's not just small-time pot smokers who live here, there's big, bad deals going down every day."

With high rates of mental health issues and homelessness, police say the community needs to be rehabilitated -- and fast.

Following years of open drug dealing on the streets, as well as a rising tide of violence, police have had enough.

After petitioning the NSW Government for more resources, Local Area Commander Bruce Lyons will be boosting the police station's staff from four to nine officers in the coming months in a push to drive the drugs out of town. But, the crackdown has angered some residents -- who claim the bigger force is overkill for a town of 500 people.

One long-time resident who declined to be named said marijuana was a big part of Nimbin.

"I don't want my first granddaughter smoking her first joint and getting busted for it because it's illegal," she said. "I'm stoned but I can still have a proper conversation with you now."

"It's a one-of-a-kind town -- there's no other town like Nimbin," said another resident, Keyarrah Delauney.

"Basically they're all over the place (the drugs).

"It's mostly marijuana or pills. Not many sell coke.

"We know where to go if we want anything -- you just go down that lane."

While Seleua Whittaker said: "I wouldn't know where to get ice off the top of my head but I would know if I asked around."

But Supt Lyons was adamant a New York-style 'broken windows' approach was the only way to smash a culture he said is destroying social order in Nimbin.

"I'm passionate about fixing the problem because, unless we deal with all the social problems, the town will continue to see the consequences of drug addiction," said Supt Lyons, who has been in charge of the Far North Coast for three years.

"I have been getting a lot of criticism about this approach but there is a silent majority in Nimbin talking to me saying they want change and change is what needs to happen."

The plan is welcome news to Gold Coast law enforcement bodies, with the lush hills of northern NSW -- from Byron Bay to Nimbin and Murwillumbah -- considered the region's own Golden Triangle of drug manufacturing, smuggling and dealing.

A number of large-scale busts in recent years have only scratched the surface as drug lords hide out in the rural hamlets surrounding the bay, bringing their products into Byron for sale, or else exporting them out of the region to nearby cities like the Gold Coast and Lismore.

From May, 2005, until mid-2006, Tweed police operation Strike Force Belconnen went on a drugs blitz, yielding stashes of marijuana and other drugs worth millions of dollars.

The region was then ranked second to Kings Cross as NSW's worst drug areas.

Last April, police raided a property near Murwillumbah where they Police found Australia's biggest ice laboratory capable of producing 300kg -- $30 million worth -- of the dangerous drug.

, five security cameras were installed along the main street in 2005 but that only pushed drug pushers into the back alleys.

Undercover police have conducted many operations in Nimbin over the years, but Supt Lyons wants to let drug dealers know police will now be on the streets.

Source

But Supt Lyons was adamant a New York-style 'broken windows' approach was the only way to smash a culture he said is destroying social order in Nimbin.

Well of course, we all know New York has no problem with drugs and dealing

Drugs in New York

But I wonder how using tactics born in a population of 19,306,183 will work in a population of 500

Shattering broken windows

[Aya]

I hope they dont destroy the essence of Nimbin. I can only see how easy it is now to use the "we're getting rid of the hard drugs" line to open the way and then getting rid of everything. The spirit, the Ganja and the people who started the nimbin ideal.

[foolsbreath]

thats the whole idea of the broken window approach, to fix one thing they have to control every aspect that may be a cause of what they want to fix by harsh policing

ie if there is one broken window in a building it gives the impression that the building is uncared for, so to give the impression of care in one area (cosmetically), every broken window must be fixed

[jasemateau]

well i think if the cops wanted to really make a move on the situaton, they could very well get say 50 cops from all over the country to sit on the town for a month.....

just to give the locals a message.

crap how green is legal to a point in SA but in NSW its not!!!

if the locals in nimbin had the choice of been ran out of town, or to have the privledge of the relaxed legeslation towards green like SA they would take it for sure.

but that wont stop them grown in the bush!!

[Torsten]

ha ha, this will not work. I think it will be a great example of the general failure of the war on some drugs. Nimbin doesn't need the street dealing in order to maintain its character. In a way I think the dealing has gotten out of hand and detracts from the culture. It's almost as annoying as some parts of amsterdam. People don't go there for the street dealers either, but rather to hang out and soak up the atmosphere.

Mind you, with that much heroin and ice in nimbin it has pretty much ruined the place anyway. I used to go there all the time [and I don't even smoke pot and have never bought a drug in nimbin], but now I am lucky if I get there once a year.

what a waste of resources. mind you, the destructive nature of meth/ice does scare me too and if we are going to have such silly drug policies then aiming them at ice attracts the least of my anger.

[Hagakure]

just a note on the broken windows theory. that was pioneered in New York and was said to contribute to the rapid fall in crime in the early 1990s. in fact the drop shows correlations with the legalisation of abortion through the 70s. less unwanted babies meant less troubled kids going on to commit crimes.

in romania the opposite was observed when a socialist government took control and changed the laws to make abortions illegal. the children born after that date were more unruley and mistreated by their parents that didnt really want them.

broken windows may be true to an extent (a building with one broken window gets the others broken, trains with graffiti on them get more graffiti) but it wasnt the main reason for the dramatic drop in crime in New York in the 90s like many claim it was.

its all detailed in a book called "freakonomics"

just a random tangent

[ergoamide]

I've been to nimbin a couple times and i have to say i havnt noticed any ice there. Heroin yes but not ice.

[Torsten]

plenty at the pub. ice is usually to blame when they riot in nimbin, smashing up shops and being extravagantly desctructive.

[ergoamide]

Ahhh ok, well last time i was there i wasn't old enough for a pub so explains why i never saw it.

[AndyAmine.]

On the subject of the crackdown, I was in Nimbin the other day when an international backpacker tried to set me up for a bust, whether he was a cop or just a trouist in truoble I cant be sure but be careful boys and girls, offering to help someone can turn around to bite you in the ass when you somewhere like Nimbin....

Very sad..

[ergoamide]

How did you realise that he was setting you for a bust?

[apothecary]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/16/1979534.htm

Police say there will be a crackdown on drug dealing in Nimbin, in northern New South Wales, and police numbers in the town will be almost doubled.

Local area commander Superintendent Bruce Lyons says five new officers will take the station total to nine.

He says there will be undercover operations to try to stamp out drug dealing, but the main thrust of the operation will be an overt, uniformed police presence on the streets.

Superintendent Lyons says it is not a negative statement about Nimbin itself, and he understands the town's quirky charms.

"There will be a sustained crackdown on the drug dealing, but just as importantly it will allow the police officers to become part of the community at Nimbin and be involved in the many positive things that happen at Nimbin," he said.

"There's a myriad of drugs up there. It's not just about cannabis, it's amphetamines, ice, heroin. There's also some alcohol issues."

Nimbin has made a name for itself for years as a drug-oriented community.

[Torsten]

police numbers in the town will be almost doubled.

Local area commander Superintendent Bruce Lyons says five new officers will take the station total to nine.

Mr Lyons can't count it seems. If the new total is 9 and the new crew is made up of 5, then the previous number was 4. If you "almost double" 4 you get 7. Yet the number is 9. Go figure.

[foolsbreath]

Yep, they are showing their brilliance once again

All this will do is decentralise the problem, pushing the dealing out into the surrounds and stretching the ability of the police to try and stop drug dealing to a point where they have less control over it have at present while allowing less resources to be spent on more important police work like dealing with assaults and abuse

Hagakure points out that the broken windows theory correlates with the legalisation of abortion, while the last link in my first post "shattering broken windows" shows that alternative methods of policing have been more succesful at reducing crime in other cities like san fran when compared to NYC at similar times.

It simply won't have any positive effect

[AndyAmine.]

All this will do is decentralise the problem, pushing the dealing out into the surrounds and stretching the ability of the police to try and stop drug dealing to a point where they have less control over it have at present while allowing less resources to be spent on more important police work like dealing with assaults and abuse

Agreed, at least at the moment its a case of "better the devil you know" kind of thing and the main players in town have a strict policy of only selling pot and NO other drugs.

If this chnages, the main players go down and the smaller poly-drug sellers will take over providing the access of hard drugs to people that wouldnt have had it before or even seriously thought about it.