Australia: Police Target 'Easy' Marijuana Arrests



Pubdate: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 



Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) 



Author: Debra Jopson 	



ubject: POLICE TARGET 'EASY' MARIJUANA ARRESTS	



Marijuana which grows prolifically in the hinterland of the mid-North Coast has become a 

currency for "hard" drugs such as heroin, according to the NSW Police area commander for Coffs-

Clarence, Commander Peter Wadsworth.	



The drug arrest rate of 50 to 60 a month for the Coffs Harbour area is the State's fourth highest, 

level-pegging with Lismore, after Cabramatta and Kings Cross, Commander Wadsworth told the 

Herald. 	



However, only a low percentage of arrests are for heroin dealing because his police officers 

deliberately target those supplying small quantities of marijuana, he revealed.	



"It is a hard thing to catch the dealers dealing," he said. They have to be caught with the heroin 

and to charge them with supplying, they have to have sufficient quantities.	



As in Cabramatta, Coffs Harbour dealers resort to practices such as hiding deals in small water 

balloons in their mouths. 	



The commander of drugs trafficking and production with the NSW Police Crime Agencies, 

Detective-Acting Superintendent Dennis O'Toole, said because heroin could easily be secreted, it 

was difficult to catch suppliers.	



"Even though the police know a person is a dealer, you still have to have a reasonable case at that 

particular time," he said. 	



"You have to have evidence that he might be holding at the moment you are in receipt of 

information that that person has a quantity of heroin. The problem is to get the evidence to provide 

to a magistrate to issue a search warrant."	



Coffs Harbour user Ms Sharn Debrincat, who is on the methadone program, said police should be 

able to catch dealers, whose names are well-known in country towns. They were wasting their time 

concentrating on marijuana, she said.	



Two long-term mid-North Coast users also on the methadone program, Eddie and Jane (not their 

real names), said police found it tough to crack the heroin subculture.	



"One gets busted and three take his place," said Eddie. 	



"There's always someone to step in," said Jane. 	



"It's a very cliquey little thing up here," she said. "It's not a lot of people, but a lot know others. If 

one person is not doing business, another person is."	



Dealers may be out in the street, but in a coastal town like Coffs Harbour, they camouflage their 

activities by replicating those of the leisured, according to this couple.	



"I know one who walked along the beach. There was one who fished on the riverbank," said 

Jane.	



The dope, said Eddie, may be secreted in a cigarette pack 50 metres up the bank.	



Those in the know can score easily in any town, according to Mark, 19, who has been in 

rehabilitation at Sherwood Cliffs farm near Coffs Harbour. 	



"I'll walk into a pub and I can tell you straight away who is dealing. You walk in and someone is 

sitting there on their own drinking an orange juice, for crying out loud," he said.