Activists threatened with arrest at police drug conference

Members of the Darwin-based drug law reform group the Network Against Prohibition (NAP) were threatened with arrest today at a national police anti-drug conference.

A small but vocal group of NAP members attended the Ninth National Chemical Diversion Congress, currently underway in Darwin in Australia’s north, to demonstrate community opposition to the event and to the War on Drugs in general.

The congress aims to prevent the diversion of chemicals used to make amphetamine type substances (ATS) and to reduce their supply.

But some NAP members believe that the event will ultimately cause more harm than the drugs it is meant to eradicate.

NAP spokesperson Gary Meyerhoff said: “The fact that the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s Lisa Barnhill is a keynote speaker at the congress is a very scary proposition for hundreds of thousands of people in Australia who consume ATS on a regular basis, especially after the DEA has just told us off for having one of the highest rates of amphetamine use in the world.

“The USA, the home of the Drug War, serves as a monument to the dramatic failure of the war declared by Nixon in the seventies.

“Apart from the criminal underclass and the pharmaceutical giants, the only people to reap any rewards from this destructive war are the owner’s of private prisons and the police, lawyers and judges that send them there. Not to mention the religious organisations that continue to receive an untold amount of government money as part of these drug eradication efforts.”

NAP members believe that drug prohibition creates corrupt police and judges, feeds the criminal underworld and has a serious impact on the health and wellbeing of illicit drug users worldwide.

Within five minutes of arriving at the conference venue, armed members of the Northern Territory Police Service ordered the NAP group to leave the premises, threatening them with arrest.

After moving on to the public street, the activists were threatened with further criminal sanctions by police, this time for handing out leaflets, however they stood their ground and were able to distribute leaflets promoting the US-based “Law Enforcement Against Prohibition” (LEAP) and NAP media alerts expressing concern about the event to congress attendees and interested members of the general public

Mr Meyerhoff said: “It is extremely distressing that in their attempts to tackle the drug ‘problem’, our police have turned to the DEA for guidance.”

The Drug War is not supported by all law enforcement officials. Many officers in the United States, Canada and the UK are so concerned about the harm caused by drug prohibition they have formed the lobby group “LEAP” to educate their colleagues about the dangerous consequences of the War on Drugs.

For more information call NAP on 0415 16 2525 (+61 415 16 2525 from overseas), Andrew Cummins (NT Police) on 08 8901 0281 (+61 8 8901 0281 from overseas), or see the following links:

NAP website

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

The Ninth National Chemical Diversion Congress

For more information about ATS click here.

Footnote: It may be possible to arrange an interview with a US-based member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Please contact Gary to arrange this on 0434 393 008 ASAP (+61 434 393 008 from overseas).