PRESS RELEASE - 3rd December 2002

Cannabis Eradication Program Side Effects
The Nimbin HEMP Embassy has continued to receive reports about a dangerously low flying helicopter in the Terania Creek Valley. Distressed parents of children attending Tuntable Creek primary school reported that the school day had continually been interrupted by police activities. In the weekend Northern Star, Det Sup Paul Jones from the Sydney drug squad confirmed that community consultation was being carried out with farmers in the area. In the meantime parents, shift workers, teachers, students and the rest of the community miss out. Nimbin HEMP Embassy, on the other hand, has asked the police to check out farmers who have been dropping their fences and letting their stock wallow and foul the last remaining water. Inez Price, HEMP's president said "with no end in sight of the drought; and a week or two into our first-ever 'terrorist alert', new draconian laws that erode our civil liberties, the creation of Homeland Security departments and plans, state and federal governments co-operating to fully utilise their resources in the face of a 'clear and present danger', 24 hour patrols on the harbour bridge and what is the Carr government doing with those scarce resources - policemen, choppers and dogs? They're looking for hippie pot in the middle of a drought!!" Is the Carr government really serious about fighting terrorism or more interested in a few cheap dope bust headlines to boost his law and order campaign?