NSW Drug Raids - Police Need to Tell the Truth

Police capture a dangerous 60 year old in a bathrobe

When it takes six military style police officers with automatic rifles, machine guns and a tank to escort an old man in a bathrobe, you know we have a problem. But this is just lost on NSW police as Commissioner Andrew Scipione declared, "Today we haven't taken a tentacle off the beast, we've removed a very, very big beast”. Yeah, a beast in a red dressing gown.

For an operation that had been planned for 12 months, needed 500 officers and involved “alleged drugs barons” at the “top of the tree”, only $9 million worth of drugs were captured. Basically, a drop in the ocean considering how big the drug market is in Australia.

But like traffic cameras, the real prize is the income with over $14 million worth of seized assets. This might help explain why the NSW police used a tank and hundreds of paramilitary style officers.

Commissioner Scipione’s spin is just the latest in a long line of chest beating speeches where we, the public are duly informed that drug syndicates are running scared and will suffer greatly from a reinvigorated police focus. Of course, we have seen this numerous times before and most of us just forget as drug dealers return and go about their daily business.

A number of the people who were arrested today were people I started working on 30 years ago when I started working in the police force

--NSW police as Commissioner Andrew Scipione

Mixed in with the excited claims of success are some worrying discrepancies. Not that the police really notice when there’s so much to tell the awaiting media. Admitting that some of those arrested have been around for 30 years might make the commissioner feel good in front of the bright media lights but it’s also confession that the drug ring leaders have built a three decade old crime empire under the nose of the law. Not something to boast about.

Like the recent drug raids in Victoria, we are being led to believe that the police are winning a battle against drugs. The assumption that catching some drug dealers, especially drug syndicate leaders is going to have a lasting affect on the drug market is fanciful. In fact, it’s a down right lie … and the police know it. 

Ask yourself if you can remember the last multimillion dollar bust? Have we already forgotten that in 2008, WA police uncovered 22kg of methylamphetamine and 35,000 ecstasy tablets worth $77 million? What about when the Federal police seized 464kg of cocaine worth $160 million from a yacht in Brisbane. That was only two months ago. In September this year, 50kg of cocaine with a street value of $12.5 million was confiscated by NSW police in Minto. In January, police found 9000 mature cannabis plants worth $18 million in the Chaelundi National Park. Only two years ago, the AFP and Customs uncovered 3000 tomato tins that contained 15 million ecstasy tablets when they were shipped from Italy to Melbourne. It was a total haul of 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy with a street value of $440 million. They arrested 20 people for the crime. Any of this ring a bell?

The fact is, we will never make any significant dent in the drug trade. We will send many people to prison, reap hundreds of millions in assets and continue to smile for the cameras in front of an eager media. But the illicit drug market stops for no one. There is just too much money to made and there’s plenty to go around. Enough for drug mules, street dealers, corrupt authorities, crooked cops and those at the top.

History and experience from other countries clearly show that no amount of policing can stop the drug trade. The black market for drugs is valued at over $400 billion annually which is the 2nd largest industry on the planet. Larger than oil, manufacturing and food sales combined. Only military sales generate more income. With a global user base of up to 250 million people or 5.7% of the world’s population, it’s no wonder the illicit drug market is booming.

We should avoid congratulating ourselves on our efforts rather than our outcomes.

--Dr Don Weatherburn - Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

What we need to focus on is that there is a big difference between what the police claim and what the experts say. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald has Dr Don Weatherburn, Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research doubting the success of the latest NSW raids. He points out that “research had so far been inconclusive on the long-term impact of drug law enforcement”. This view was reflected by Dr. Katie Willis, a senior research analyst at the Australian Institute of Criminology. Dr. Willis said it was also necessary to look at health-related results such as drug deaths, overdoses, and drug treatment. Our insatiable hunger for arresting people is blinding us to the human fallout as we lose sight of whether our strategies are benefitting society.

The big question is whether our attempts to wipe out the illicit drug market actually works. And like so many experts tell us, the answer is no. This presents us with a huge problem. Why do the police and governments continue with such a failed policy when there is no evidence whatsoever that it is successful? Shouldn’t this send the media and political opposition into a frenzy that the police and government are trying to fool us? Where’s the scrutiny? Where’s the demand for an enquiry into our flawed drug policy? Where’s the outrage that we are being lied to by our authorities and police?

At the end of the day while moralists pray, governments talk tough and police incarcerate people, criminals just keep getting richer and society becomes more dangerous. If the experts tell us this, why can’t the police?

Premature Cheers For Drug Busts

Sydney Morning Herald

Geesche Jacobsen and Nick Ralston

December 10, 2010

POLICE say they plan to target anyone seeking to fill the vacuum left by the arrest of 31 alleged drug distributors this week.

But the head of the Bureau of Crime Statistics warned yesterday that the results of the arrests should be judged on their impact on the price, purity and availability of the relevant drugs.

Police said the drug raids this week had taken out those they believe to be the major players in the middle level of the three tiers of the drug supply chain. Local police are targeting street-level drug supply, and specialist officers also work on putting the third level, drug importers, behind bars.

But Dr Weatherburn warned: ''We should avoid congratulating ourselves on our efforts rather than our outcomes.''

Research had so far been inconclusive on the long-term impact of drug law enforcement, he said.

Drug seizures in the early 1990s had had no impact on price, purity or availability of the drug, but later seizures and arrests of heroin kingpins had led to an enduring heroin shortage, he said.

Some researchers said the heroin shortage was not the result of police work, but other factors.

A senior research analyst at the Australian Institute of Criminology, Katie Willis, said it was also necessary to look at health-related results such as drug deaths, overdoses, and drug treatment.

Dr Willis said it was also difficult to assess the impact of law enforcement because the size of the drug market was unknown. The police, she said, might have been tackling just ''the tip of the iceberg''.

But she said she expected the purity and availability of drugs to fall in the short term as a result of the arrests.

Yesterday, Henry Landini, 66, alleged to be one of the key players arrested on Wednesday, made a brief appearance in Bankstown Local Court. In a blue polo shirt, with his hair slicked back and wearing glasses, he did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.

He has been charged with supplying large amounts of amphetamines in Sydney's inner-west and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

In court his solicitor, Paul Kenny, rejected claims made by police that there was a risk Mr Landini might flee the country.

Another man arrested on Wednesday, Adel Muustafa, 24, also did not apply for bail but he did not make an appearance before the court. He has been charged with supplying cocaine in Sylvania and with firearm offences.

Related Articles in the Sydney Morning Herald

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Major Drug Raid Operation Removes 'Very Big Beast' In NSW, Allege Police

Drug Crime Leaps In NSW

Inject Reality Into Drug Debate

Bikies Fight For Lucrative Drug Trade

Drug Policy Stalls In Law-And-Order Gear

Holding Pattern On Drug Policy Is Costing Society

Boy, 14, A 'Drug Cartel Hitman'

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Stop Repeating Yourselves ... You’re Wrong

How many times do we have to witness and ultimately pay for this ridiculous attempt to please an ignorant public, boofhead politicians and the moral police? Once again, at The Big Day Out, police caught only a small percentage of attendees with drugs while thousands got through. There were dozens of officers, sniffer hounds and public searches all meant to deter drugs from entering the festival. It happens all too often now with the costs mounting up and the shock value decreasing significantly.

Year after year we repeat the same warnings before the event starts, but every year there are still people who stupidly try to get past us and fail
-Superintendent Rod Smith

Why do the police keep doing the same thing, over and over, but expect a different result? According to many, Albert Einstein made a similar observation and claimed it is a sign of insanity. Repeating the same flawed strategy again and again but somehow expecting the latest result to miraculously be different. You get the drift here. The police keep giving out dire warnings that anyone bringing in drugs to a music festival like The Big Day Out, will be caught and dealt with harshly by the courts. Each year though, only a few people get caught. Most are given a caution while thousands simply bypass the sniffer dogs and continue on like the police never existed. This is repeated for each music festival in every state. Insanity? ... or just another fault with the prohibitionist model for dealing with drugs? It doesn’t take a genius like Einstein to work this out and in fact it didn’t. The cliché was actually coined by novelist, Rita Mae Brown.

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results
-Rita Mae Brown, Sudden Death (Bantam Books, New York, 1983), p. 68

Not only do the police re-enact the same old strategy but they try to turn it around and put it on the people who attend these festivals. This gets to the crux of the futile approach taken by our government on drug control. We are historically consumers of drugs and we are always going to partake especially young people at a music festival. Whether the constabulary are there or not, drugs are going to be smuggled in and unless every single person, including the staff, the musicians and the police themselves are stripped searched, there will be plenty to go around. That olden but golden observation becomes apparent once more - if we can’t stop drugs getting into prison, how are we going to stop drugs getting into ... the Sydney show grounds, the Melbourne show grounds etc.

A total of 381 people were arrested, with police laying 104 drug possession charges, 12 drug supply charges, six assault charges and one malicious damage charge. Police also issued nine cannabis cautions, ejected 11 drunk people and caught 18 people trying to jump the fence into the venue.
-(AAP) PerthNow

It’s becoming all too common for the police to join the chorus of crooked politicians and agenda driven anti-drug zealots pushing out fear, exaggerated harms and lies. Droning on about “no drug is a safe drug” or “we’re putting drug dealers and drug users on alert ... we will catch you!”, might keep those “crooked politicians and agenda driven anti-drug zealots” happy but it’s not really productive. Like so much of the typical anti-drug rhetoric from the media and politicians, messages from the police are often produced just to please converts of the drug war or exploitable parents who have already been paralysed with fear. Think about the hundreds of thousands who use ecstasy, speed, cannabis etc. when they go out or on special occasions. Most of them have never had a problem with their drug taking or even seen any lasting negative effect. They have undoubtedly seen booze cause some major upsets but rarely does the same happen with recreational drugs. In fact, I’d dare say it’s the opposite and they have an absolutely cracker of a night. These are the supposed targets of these anti-drug messages but with the constant stream of dire warnings never coming to fruition, the message fails to make an impact. The truth is, and it’s a hard truth ... recreational drugs are taken so often because they are enjoyable, exciting and exhilarating with very little downside. You don’t hear this mentioned very much.

There is this idea with some young people that taking drugs enhances their day out, in reality, they are putting their lives at risk by taking illegal drugs sold by people out to make a quick buck.

They might think this is just an ecstasy pill, but as police members, too often we see the tragic effect of these foolish decisions.

Make no mistake, there is no such thing as a safe party drug.

[...]

No overdoses were recorded among the 10,500 people that attended the event
-Detective Inspector Mark Zervaas - (AAP) The HeraldSun

Yep, you read that right. After all the dire warnings, his last reported comment was, “No overdoses were recorded among the 10,500 people that attended the event”. And we wonder why these messages are over looked by the target audience as just more anti-drug babble.

Apart from being totally pointless, the attempt to stop drugs entering The Big Day Out raises a bigger issue. Why is such a dangerous drug like alcohol allowed to flow freely whilst so much effort is put into stopping safer drugs like cannabis, LSD and ecstasy? This elephant-in-the-room just keeps eluding us over and over as the anti-drug zealots come up with new, fanciful arguments over and over. Remember the constant grind about dope being a gateway drug? That took 40 years of repeated research proving it a myth. Then cannabis supposedly caused all sorts of madness including psychosis, schizophrenia and amotivational syndrome. After numerous studies, they too was finally narrowed down to effect only a tiny group of people with amotivational syndrome being a complete furfie. Since then, cannabis has been blamed for causing testicular cancer, lung cancer, making us sterile, changing personalities and being anti-social. They too are loosing out to science and research which means the anti-drug brigade will have to devise new symptoms of cannabis use to scare the public.

But it’s ecstasy(MDMA) that’s getting the fear treatment at the moment. It wasn’t too long ago that ecstasy was touted as the new drug scourge crippling society. Warnings of massive depression, holes in the brain as seen in CT scans and of course addiction ... all after even one pill. The hype was so intense that the anti-methadone campaign in the US, One Pill Can Kill was mistakenly taken up by anti-ecstasy groups, the police and local nutters.

Ecstasy was perfectly legal until it hit the dance scene in the US. The DEA in spectacular form, ignored a scientific court ruling and rushed through an emergency law to class it as a schedule I drug. This put an end to promising research into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other psychological problems. It seemed that too many young(and old) Americans were just having too much fun for the DEA. But it was a Newsweek article that put MDMA on the most feared list in the US. Newsweek cited flawed research that just one pill could create “holes” in the brain and they provided a CT scan to prove it. It was later revealed that the test subject monkeys had been injected with pure methamphetamine instead of MDMA and the hole in the brain scans really meant nothing. But the damage had been done. Much to the delight of anti-drug crusaders, ecstasy was now seen as a killer. It took over 2 decades of overseas research to eat away at the myths surrounding ecstasy and only now is the real truth coming out. Not addictive, very few deaths, very few problems, statistically safer than riding a horse.

Det-Supt Charlie Carver, of the Serious and Organised Crime Squad, said many seized ecstasy pills contained harmful chemicals such as chalk and washing powder.
-The Sunday Times 

The latest strategy by the anti-drug nutters is not aimed at MDMA itself but the contaminants that are mixed in by manufacturers to extend their product. You have probably read about ecstasy being be cut with glass, rat poison, cleaning agents, heroin etc. The reality is that ecstasy is now being cut more than ever but usually with other mind altering drugs like PMA, Mephedrone, caffeine and ketamine. As far as I know, the claims of glass, heroin and poisons being included in ecstasy pills are myths.

Ecstasy has never been cheaper or more dangerous in Perth, a major new study reveals.
 -The Sunday Times 

Ironically, it’s the drug laws themselves that present the most danger. An unregulated industry(prohibition) breeds crime and a black market where there is no age restrictions, health guidelines or quality control. To top it off, the federal and state governments won’t allow doctors to run pill testing booths at music festivals or raves. This leaves users at the mercy of criminals and what they decide goes in the mix. If you have a complaint, don’t ring The Office of Fair Trading or contact a consumer rights group. The illicit drug industry handles complaints in their own special way - usually with intimidation and violence.

If we look to the club scene in London for setting the trends here in Australia, we should be worried. As MDMA is becoming scarce in London, most ecstasy pills are being filled with steroids, caffeine and mephedrone, a drug we know very little about. This has caused the arrest rate for possession of MDMA to drop significantly in London over the last few year. From 1,197 in 2006 to 773 in 2008. 2009 is looking to be less than 500. This is not a case of drug manufacturers trying to extend their profits but because of a crack down on MDMA precursors by the authorities`. China is now the sole manufacturer of the main precursor for MDMA with exports coming from only 2 countries. They are all heavily regulated and monitored with less than 5 litres in total being sold in 2008 and 2009.

Our philosophy is that we don’t want people to die in order to learn a lesson
 -Students for Sensible Drug Policy

This might keep the AFP, DEA and other drug enforcement agencies happy but as usual, their mindless obsession and limited thinking is killing people. In other words, cracking down on the relatively safe drug MDMA, has caused a surge in PMA, mephedrone, BZP, GHB and other more harmful drugs. Why are anti-drug agencies and groups so inept with logic? They think that if you simply make it harder to get a certain drug then users will just stop taking all drugs? Or when a certain area is targeted by the police - drug users just don’t give up and the dealers quit to get legitimate jobs. The drug scene simply moves somewhere else. Haven’t they ever heard of the Balloon Effect? - squeeze one end and a bulge appears somewhere else.


Insanity
So when will this farce stop? We have silly, ignorant politicians making all sorts of comical statements mixed in with deceitful politicians blatantly lying for some selfish agenda. Giving their support, are the moral crusaders who are mostly happy clappers from the religious right or the new breed of racist, Howard loving, pro-Israel, Tim Blair arse licking neo-conservatives. And in case you still have missed it, we have the sensational and heavily biased Murdoch media pumping out myths, lies and inane opinion pieces designed to brainwash a susceptible public.

Anyone with a hint of intelligence should be able to see the massive flaws in the current system. For example, why do we still have a major drug problem after 50 years of being “Tough on Drugs”? Why is alcohol still legal when it kills 10 times the number of people who die from all illicit drugs combined? Where are the masses of drug induced mental health patients? Why are there still so many drugs available when every week we hear that a new bust was supposed to greatly reduce drug supply?

Where is the common sense and pragmatism? Why do we spend billions on stopping drug supplies but drugs are now easier to obtain than ever before? Why do we keep rolling out the same expensive “Tough on Drugs” strategy when it never meets it’s targets? Why aren’t politicians caught out by the media for lying when they make brash, non-truthful statements? Most anti-drug claims by politicians are simply lies with no scientific evidence but for some reason, opposing political parties don’t just let it slide by but usually try to out do them. This childish banter of “I’m tougher on drugs than you” is purely political and only exacerbates the societal damage already inflicted. And the damage is real, costing many lives and causing incredible carnage. Why is this allowed to continue without any real scrutiny from the media?

While advances in science and medicine bound along exponentially, the approach to drug use lingers in the dark ages. Keeping the public ignorant and fearful of drugs is the prime objective for politicians because it’s a vote winner. That would change if the public were more aware of the facts but with decades of propaganda, myths and fear being forced on them, they don’t have hope. It’s spooky to think that just 10-20 minutes on the intertubes would expose a 100 years of misinformation and lies with the truth there for anyone who cares to find out.

Police Arrest More Than 300 People At Big Day Out
(AAP) PerthNow
January 2010

MORE than 300 people were arrested over the two-day Big Day Out music festival in Sydney, with one person caught with 24 ecstasy tablets, police said today.

Police, including officers from the Dog Squad and Commuter Crime unit, targeted drug and alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour at the festival in Homebush on Friday and Saturday.

A total of 381 people were arrested, with police laying 104 drug possession charges, 12 drug supply charges, six assault charges and one malicious damage charge.

Police also issued nine cannabis cautions, ejected 11 drunk people and caught 18 people trying to jump the fence into the venue.

Ambulance officers were also kept busy, with 1587 people treated by St John Ambulance volunteers over both days, while 36 patients were taken to hospital.

Many of those revellers were treated for dehydration, as temperatures climbed into the 40's on both days.

Drugs seized during the police operation included cannabis, ecstasy, ice, LSD, cocaine and amphetamines.

"One person was found entering the venue allegedly in possession of 24 ecstasy tablets," police said in a statement.

Superintendent Rod Smith said most festival-goers enjoyed themselves responsibly, but some people still hadn't got the message.

"Year after year we repeat the same warnings before the event starts, but every year there are still people who stupidly try to get past us and fail," Supt Smith said in a statement.

"The results also show that anti-social behaviour won't be tolerated, and those charged over the last two days will have to face the consequences at court."

NSW Police Round Up Dangerous Criminals

The NSW police have been experiencing a PR nightmare recently but their latest escapade tops them all. In a woeful display of wasted resources, a Cheech and Chong show at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney’s Newtown was delayed as a team of 25 officers and 4 drug dogs screened the audience as they entered the foyer. The police were later seen at nearby pubs and the local railway station in search of more dangerous, middle aged pot smokers. In all, 6 people were found with small quantities of cannabis and were released without charge and instead were given a caution notice.

Whilst your head is exploding, I am still wondering what prompted the NSW police to conduct this useless drug raid when no one was charged. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t fit into the category of being ‘tough on crime’ because no one was arrested. It doesn’t help the public feel safer because the targets were mostly grandparents watching a comedy show in a theatre. It wasn’t sending any sort of “drugs are bad” message as the audience were way past the lecturing stage. Who knows what the incentive was? Interestingly, Tommy Chong’s wife, Shelby said it was the first time she had police with dogs in the audience at a gig. I know the NSW police might want some publicity but being singled out as the only police force to ever use drug sniffer dogs for a well known international act is embarrassing. It was a poor choice to target 40+ year olds (including many grandparents) for the crime of possessing personal amounts of cannabis. Most of the target ‘criminals’ would be older working people made up of senior public servants, school principles, executives, high ranking police officers, business owners etc. It’s reassuring the NSW police are keeping us safe from these dangerous criminals.

The Propaganda Files - Drugs on the Table

NSW Police Minister: Tough On Drugs ... Soft On Maths ... Even Softer On Reality


There’s an old saying in the world of fighting drug crime - “Drugs on the Table”. When a politician or senior police officer need some publicity that they are being tough on drugs, they would produce piles of confiscated narcotics and put them on display for the press and public to admire. Then a few important people would stand behind it, declaring they are taking drugs off the street. The saying is still used today ... except without the table. The press loves to report on mountains of drugs and the public see it as a success in the fight against the illegal trade. All of which suits the PR machine behind our anti-drug, crime fighting heroes.

Putting the “Drugs on the Table” might work most of the time but any simple analysis usually unfolds the nasty truth of unpublished statistics, costly operations and lashes of propaganda. So when a “Drugs on the Table” media release from NSW Police Minister, Tony Kelly and the NSW police recently appeared in the newspapers, I sat down with a calculator and did some figures.

Organisation: NSW Police Force & NSW Police Minister, Tony Kelly
Campaign: Cannabis busts in NSW

When: 2008-2009
Link: Press Release 

Propaganda: 8/10

Laugh Out Loud Rating: 5/10


The headlines scream:

Police Seize More Than $18 Million Worth Of Cannabis

MORE than $18 million worth of cannabis crops have been seized in a series of aerial drug raids across NSW over the past five months, police said.

The haul had effectively wiped out a large percentage of the NSW summer crop, which would otherwise have now been on the streets of Sydney and NSW country towns.

Removing $18 million dollars worth of cannabis off the streets is impressive for 5 months work. 9,645 cannabis plants were destroyed and 20 people were charged (or issued with Field Court Attendance Notices). The NSW police and NSW Police Minister, Tony Kelly are claiming a huge dent has been put in the illegal drug market and they are “cutting into the sale of cannabis on the streets by attacking the source”.

Whoooo there, slow down a bit sherif. We need some perspective here. Last year, the Australian Crime Commission conservatively estimated the value of the Australian illicit drug trade at about $10 billion. So lets do the maths, subtract 18 million from 10,000 million ... [calculator pounding away] er, [redoing calculations] um, [resorting to pen and paper for calculations] mmm, that leaves 9,982 million. That's less than 0.2% of the total drug market. Not really earth shattering figures.

This past summer the pro-active work of NSW Police managed to put a huge dent in the illegal cannabis trade across the state
Tony Kelly - NSW Police Minister

In 2006/07, 4,782 kilograms of cannabis was confiscated by police which equates to about $96 million dollars at $20 per gram. To allow for discounted sales and we halve the value it comes to $48m. It is estimated that only 10% of all drugs are seized by police each year so this calculates out to about half a billion dollars a year in cannabis sales. The thrill of seizing and destroying $18 million dollars worth of illegal cannabis suddenly abates and the reality factor hits home that this “huge dent in the illegal cannabis trade” might only be a minor scratch in the paintwork.

The State Command’s Cannabis Team is made up of Drug Squad detectives working with the Police Air Wing, Dog Squad, Radio Electronics Unit and officers from the various Local Area Commands, all working together to locate and destroy cannabis crops across NSW. These different units have successfully pooled their resources with the single focus of disrupting the cultivation and distribution of cannabis.
Tony Kelly - NSW Police Minister

So how much do us tax payers spend on this 'formidable outfit' that includes drug squad detectives, a police air wing, a dog squad, a radio electronics unit and police from local area commands? I would really love to know this but conducting a cost-benifit analysis for our efforts at eliminating illicit drugs is virtually impossible. First of all, without control of the market i.e. prohibition, we can never obtain real information. And how do you measure success? Forcing outdoor cannabis growers out of business might lead to a surge in the stronger form of hydroponically grown skunk or a shift to production of harder drugs. Is this success? No government has ever commissioned a proper cost-benefit analysis of their local "War on Drugs" as far as I know. Maybe I’m wrong but the only serious attempt I know of is from the non government Transform Drug Policy Foundation in the UK. The point is, are we wasting our dwindling financial resources for the benefit of politicians? Is the targeting of outdoor cannabis crops the best way to help with the drug problem? These are valid questions but without some sort of audit or study, we are left with the opinion and media releases from those directly involved. And as I’ve shown, their figures don’t quite add up.

This sends a clear message about police determination to attack the illegal drug trade at its foundations
Tony Kelly - NSW Police Minister

Police determination means jack-shit to organised crime. They are too far up the ladder to seriously fear getting caught and there’s always the greasy wheel of bent cops that insane profit margins guarantee will keep them at an arm’s length from the law. If anything, police determination just gives more support to their favourite law ... prohibition. The losers are the private growers and the tax payer, both who are just fodder in this endless cycle. If police determination is a factor, what about the determination of those who make millions of dollars from this drug trade? As we are seeing in Mexico, even the military can’t quell the determination of drug cartels that make more tax free profits than the oil industry.

Some Figures to Ponder

• From the NSW Police Force Media Release Archives (25 Feb 2009 - 12 Apr 2009), less than 10% of the media releases involved drugs. These media releases are usually for major police news that warrant the attention of the press. This must leave a lot of small drug arrests deemed unimportant. In fact, out of the 500 police media releases from 25 Feb 2009 - 12 Apr 2009, only 9 were for cannabis. One was the $18 million summary in this article, 4 related to one case and 3 were for hydroponics.
• Nationally, 82,300 people were arrested for drug offences in the 2006–07 financial year and nearly 70% of these drug arrests were for cannabis offences. That’s a whopping 57,000 plus people arrested for cannabis in 12 months. (The $18 million dollars worth of seizures only nabbed 20 people)
• There were 627 detections of cannabis at the border in 2006–07, 24% more than the previous reporting period. However, there was a minor decrease in the weight of cannabis detected.
• 62% of all border detections of cannabis involved the importation of seeds.
• Some 85% of governments’ drug budgets are allocated to law enforcement and some 87% of arrests are of consumers.
• Cannabis remains the most widely used illicit drug in Australia.

Police Seize More Than $18 Million Worth Of Cannabis
Daily Telegraph
By Simon Benson
April 2009

MORE than $18 million worth of cannabis crops have been seized in a series of aerial drug raids across NSW over the past five months, police said.

The haul had effectively wiped out a large percentage of the NSW summer crop, which would otherwise have now been on the streets of Sydney and NSW country towns.

But the increase in police aerial patrols since September last year had now forced dope growers, literally, into the hills.

Police fear crops would become harder to detect with growers moving to more rugged and inaccessible terrain, using sophisticated irrigation systems.

Police Minister Tony Kelly yesterday congratulated the state crime command drug squad's plantation unit for delivering what he described as a major dent in the cannabis industry.

"This past summer the pro-active work of NSW Police managed to put a huge dent in the illegal cannabis trade across the state," he said.

"During peak cannabis growing season the police pulled out thousands of plants, cutting into the sale of cannabis on the streets by attacking the source.

"This sends a clear message about police determination to attack the illegal drug trade at its foundations."

Mr Kelly said seven cannabis eradication programs were conducted from November last year to the end of March this year.

Regions targeted included Byron Bay, Richmond, Manning Great Lakes, mid-North Coast, Far South Coast, Coffs Harbour and the New England Area.

A total of 9645 cannabis plants were destroyed.

Police said 20 people were charged with either possessing or cultivating cannabis.

Mr Kelly said the state command's cannabis team was a formidable outfit with units including drug squad detectives, police air wing, dog squad, radio electronics unit and police from local area commands.

Since 2001, the cannabis eradication programs had resulted in the seizure and destruction of 100,536 plants, valued at more than $206 million.

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