LAST DRINKS FOR HEMP BAR

The Nimbin HEMP Bar has closed indefinitely and the Nimbin Museum
will only remain open if a new tenant can be found who is willing to
manage the premises under a series of conditions set down by the landlord.

After hearing the news of the Museum's imminent closure in New York,
long-time Nimbin activist and artist Benny Zable has said he will
remove his mural above the building in a show of solidarity and
protest against the move.

Police recently advised both landlords they would be applying to have
the buildings declared 'restricted premises' under the Restricted
Premises Act of 1943 if the landlords did not attempt to limit drug
dealing. The declaration means the police can search or raid the
premises at will.

A volunteer from the Nimbin HEMP Bar said it closed Friday, August
29, after volunteers collectively decided to shut the shop rather
than see the landlord, a Nimbin local, forced to comply or be the
subject of further action.

Museum curator Michael Balderstone, who has been a tenant of the
building for more than 20 years, said the conditions are "ridiculous
and virtually impossible" and he feels like it's a scene from
Orwell's 1984 playing out, with the police citing a law created in
World War II to close the tourist attraction, where drug dealing has
become commonplace. Police deny they wanted to see either building close.

The conditions imposed on the Nimbin Museum include finding a new
tenant with no criminal record who agrees to house CCTV in and out of
the shop with access by police at anytime or by video link. The new
tenant must also make an undertaking to the landlord that they will
not support and allow any illegal activity by staff or customers and
will report any potential illegal activity to police unconditionally.

"With these rules I have to phone the sarge every time I see a joint
or a bong, or even each time I see someone pocket an empty orchy
bottle suspiciously! I'll never be able to get off the phone," Mr
Balderstone said, although police claim he doesn't fit the criteria
for a new tenant anyway. "Young lads in Nimbin are tempted by drug
dealing, but they're not bad kids and I'm not going to send them to
jail. For years we've tried to manage the situation and minimise the
harm to the community.

"It's developed into a big game of cat and mouse -- the police know
what's going but don't have the resources to be here to deal with it
so they expect the community to do it, but we can't follow the letter
of the law like that here. In our culture we don't dob on our
brothers and sisters.

"The bureaucracy has its head in the sand -- they are beating up the
charge of supply as a serious crime when most of the street dealers
are selling pot so they can afford a smoke.No one's getting rich.
Nothing will stop the dealing, it will just continue somewhere else,
unless we have some kind of trial of regulated supply, like in Amsterdam."