NIMBIN HEMP BAR A DRUG HAVEN NO MORE

The free-wheeling days of buying cannabis and pot smoking at Nimbin's Hemp
Bar and the Nimbin Museum are over -- or so it would seem.

The Nimbin Hemp Bar has been revamped and reopened as part of the Hemp
Embassy and will not tolerate drug deals and smoking on the premises.

The Nimbin Museum has installed cameras to help stomp out drug dealing. A
fence is being built beside the notorious Rainbow Lane.

Museum founder and operator Michael Balderstone confirmed his associate
Elspeth Jones had applied to take over the museum.

Lease negotiations are still being finalised.

Mr Balderstone said two of the four museum security cameras have been stolen.

Hemp activist Gary Big Bong, also known as Max Stone, said the bar was not
sublet and had been remodelled.

It is part of the Hemp Embassy and a showplace for its continuing
political activism.

It was closed for four months after police issued a letter to its
landlord, the Nimbin Community School co-operative, to evict the tenants
because of the belief that ongoing drug supply was taking place there.

"There is definitely no pot smoking here now," Mr Big Bong said.

"It is no longer a cannabis cafe demonstration model."