Press Release: Nimbin Museum Offers to Close for a Month to Assist Police

MEDIA RELEASE: NIMBIN MUSEUM FRIDAY, AUG 29 NIMBIN MUSEUM OFFERS TO CLOSE FOR A MONTH TO ASSIST POLICE The Nimbin Museum is a cultural icon in the tiny Northern NSW village inland from Byron Bay, internationally famous for its alternative culture. Police have put the squeeze on the Museum’s landlord to evict the curator Michael Balderstone because of drug supply on the premises. He says in response to the threat of the Museum closure, “We offer to close the Museum for a month to see what difference it makes to drug dealing in the village. It is offensive for police to suggest we haven’t tried our hardest to keep dealing out of the Museum since we began here over twenty years ago. It has been an impossible chore and caused more than one nervous breakdown for Museum volunteers. We have never stopped policing the dealing and extremely difficult behaviour associated with it, in and around the Museum, as the police themselves are rarely here. The many police I have had to work with for two decades all know how much I and the Museum volunteers have tried to stop drug dealing in the Museum.” “In the month we are closed I ask that artists be allowed to work inside to restore some of the damage done to exhibits by the young, disrespectful, alienated, angry and paranoid youth who risk jail daily in Nimbin just to sell a bit of pot. Why?” Elspeth Jones, almost a resident artist and exhausted dealer ‘thrower outerer’ says, “The Museum is a gathering place for the community. Every day we welcome many people to the Museum, both visitors and locals. Our youth, young children with ever extending families and their elders share tables, pots of tea and good conversation with people from all over the world. It is really a place for cultural exchange, education and for breaking down barriers. It has become such a popular attraction because visitors ultimately want to see a place where the locals are getting on with their lives, where they can meet with the people who make Nimbin such a colourful and different place and feel part of it. They see Nimbin warts and all, and mostly love it”. “We aim to maintain a friendly atmosphere inside, and have never denied entry to the police. They become in a way part of it, we have on display the ins and outs of prohibition to all. Visitors can see for themselves that the war on drugs is futile, and our endeavours to curb the dealing around the Museum and indeed throughout Nimbin have been as successful as the war on drugs world wide.”, said Elspeth “The permanent closure of the Museum would create a huge gap in village life, scattering and diluting the alternative and indiginous culture here even further. We would be cutting off our nose to spite our face, creating a dull “Everytown” where tourists eat and leave none the wiser.” Further information 66891123 or after hours 66897525 www.nimbinmuseum.com Below is a copy of the letters to the Museum landlord, and Judge, sent today. Richard, I went to Lismore Courthouse this morning and left the letter below for the Judge. I’ll send a copy to Emma Sullivan at the Crown Solicitor’s Office also. I also went next door and left a note and copy for Detective Sargeant Michael Smith, who I’ve known for twenty years. I’m offering to close the Museum for a month to see what difference it makes to Nimbin’s drug dealing. I also ask that artists be allowed to work inside during this time to restore some of the damage done to exhibits and paintings by the young, disrespectful, angry and paranoid youth who risk jail daily in Nimbin, and we have to deal with on a daily basis. I think the police are trying to make you and I responsible for this which is unfair. Prefer to talk to you on the phone to try and sort this out. I have lots of upset people and free legal help offers. We all want to fix the ugly dealing scene in Nimbin, but not at the expense of our best attractions. Best wishes, Michael Thursday, August 28, 2008 To the Presiding Judge, Lismore Court House. I began my life in Nimbin over 20 years ago when I rented the Museum shopfront as a second hand, antique shop. Dealing of illegal drugs was a small issue then in the village, but even then a divisive one. As tourism grew and the popularity of cannabis spread, so the dealing grew along with the shops in the town, now nearly all dependent on the tourist trade. Over the now I5 years that I have operated the Museum as a tourism enterprise, my assistants and I have strived tirelessly to keep drug dealing off the premises. This has often been at great personal risk and many volunteers have quit because of the abuse copped in the process. There are numerous signs throughout the Museums 8 rooms saying ‘no dealing’, and even detailed, large writing explaining our predicament and asking for co-operation. Of course many of the young men dealing cannot read! The police are fully aware of all this and I have always tried to communicate openly and honestly with them for approximately twenty years. All that time I've been a member of the Police Community Consultation Committee. The big change came when CCTV cameras were installed in the street, live to the police station, several years ago. Displacement is a well documented consequence, but it was accepted that this would eventuate, and it did. All over town, everywhere the cameras don't cover, the dealing moved there. This included inside the Museum and in the extensive unfenced backyard and adjoining block, none of which is on camera, nor in my lease. So it seems totally unfair that the Museum, Nirnbin's main tourist attraction, is threatened because the more tourism grows here, and the more police stop walking the beat like they had to before the cameras, the worse the situation is getting. It doesn’t help that Nimbin has a closed Youth Club and SK8 Park, and the Museum building used to house the youth club. Also, dealing occurs all over Nimbin and yet the police continue to target the two business premises, Hemp Bar and the Museum, who have both been lawfully and actively lobbying for cannabis law reform. The very reason we have been calling for a trial of licensed cannabis cafes is to deal with this impossible and longstanding situation. We have an implied constitutional right to political association and freedom of speech. The oppressive and unconscionable use of this legislation by the police in this matter is a burden on our rights I believe. I invite you to visit the Museum and Hemp Embassy’s websites, see links below. Since the closure of the Museum at MardiGrass this year, May 3 & 4, Nimbin's busiest weekend of the year, we have strived conscientiously to keep the dealing outside the premises and have succeeded mostly because the dealers take our threats more seriously now because we have a copy of the affidavit and police DVD of the April 1st raid. Police have observed this change and there has not been any supply charges that I am aware of over the previous 4 months. This can be confirmed by police records. Before we reopened after that weekend closure I purposefully went to the police station to discuss what was expected from me by the police and was told by Detective Sergeant Michael Smith and the local Sergeant Mat Johnson, who agreed that the eradication of drug dealing from Nimbin was an impossible objective, and that I should just continue “to do my best and try and keep the dealing outside". I have engaged in an endless dialogue with the Police including the Area Commander about how to make Nimbin more peaceful and how to deal with the illegal cannabis trade and the people attracted to it. It is disappointing that the police recently ceased to include me in any discussions and there is no acknowledgement of the more than reasonable effort we make everyday. Please consider our situation in any decisions which you are required to make in relation to the Nimbin Museum. Please also note that I have only been given a few days notice on this matter the affect of which will have a major long term impact on Nimbin tourism and the many volunteers involved in keeping the Museum operational. As the occupant of the premises I ask to be given a say in the matter when it is heard. Please advise us of any hearings or how I should go about getting heard. I have been advised that undercover police have been offered marijuana in the Museum since the MardiGrass, the fresh evidence, and wonder why they didn’t arrest these people. I cannot do their job for them. The Museum won a major North Coast Tourism Award some years back and has an international reputation for it’s extraordinary art, murals, sculptures etc. Our joy is welcoming visitors from across the planet who come in busloads daily. I understand the police are just trying to do their job but I believe they will be throwing the baby out with the bathwater in this case. And it is not adressing the issue of the dealers who will remain everywhere else in town. Wishing you could find the time and come and see the situation for yourself. My landlord lives in Sydney and has never been to Nimbin. I am a good tenant, always pay the rent on time and maintain the old and leaking building at my own expense usually. If they cannot keep all drug dealing out of the jails, what hope do i have? Your sincerely, Michael Balderstone P.S. I offer to close the Museum for a month to see if it helps stop the drug dealing in Nimbin. Nimbin Museum, 62 Cullen st, Nimbin, 2480 phone 66891123 www.nimbinmuseum.com www.hempembassy.net