Facing jail in Aussie for protest

A Former New Waltham man is facing court action in Australia over his campaign for drug law reform.

Gary Meyerhoff (28), who emigrated to Australia in 1984, has been charged with a criminal offence after he protested against controversial drug laws at a state parliament in Darwin, Northern Territory. Last year, he was arrested after he and eight others managed to get into a Parliament building and interrupt a debate
about the new laws.

The Northern Territory has introduced "drug house" laws, which allow police to have properties declared "drugs premises", with a metre-high sign attached to the door. The law allows police to raid the property at any time and to stop and search anyone coming within 200 metres of the property.

Mr Meyerhoff has been charged with deliberately disrupting the Legislative Assembly while it was in motion.

He has pleaded not guilty to the offence and if found guilty he will be sentenced in the next few weeks, facing a maximum penalty of three years in jail. He plans to take his case to a higher court if the verdict goes against him.

A co-ordinator of the Network Against Prohibition (Nap), he has also been involved in "smoke-ins", where people smoke cannabis at public places in Darwin. The events attract scores of people and several arrests have been made.

Nap wants all drugs, from cannabis to heroin, to be legalised.

Mr Meyerhoff said: "We are pushing for full drug law reform, but obviously we are taking this one step at a time.

"Ultimately, we do not think prohibition is effective. It just forces things underground."

He still has many relatives in the Grimsby area and has visited North East Lincolnshire several times.

Mr Meyerhoff has witnessed the problems heroin and other drugs cause in Grimsby, but thinks high drug use is a product of other social problems, like unemployment.

A former pupil of Enfield Primary, New Waltham, he said: "There is definitely a huge lack of services for people and there hasn't really been an organised response by drug users themselves to fight for better services.

"A lot of the problems I saw would have been related to the prohibition."

The result of the court case is expected in the next fortnight.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Sat, 24 May 2003
Source: Grimsby Evening Telegraph
Website: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk
Copyright: 2003 Northcliffe Newspapers Group Ltd