Hemp Embassy president on drug driving charge

The president of Nimbin’s Hemp Embassy, Michael Balderstone, has revealed he tested positive for cannabis during a recent random drug test (RDT) in the area.

Mr Balderstone, a lifelong cannabis advocate says he has yet to decide whether to fight the matter in court.

‘I haven’t even received the charge sheet yet,’ he told Echonetdaily.

But he described police conducting random drug tests in Nimbin as being ‘like shooting fish in a barrel’.

‘The police know full well they can bully us. They introduced this scheme which is untested and unproven and we are the only country on Earth testing like this…just testing for presence, no level at all just a scerrick of THC and you are likely to lose your licence,’ he said.

‘Imagine any level of alcohol and you lose your licence, and it passes through your system quickly, unlike cannabis.

‘I’ve been smoking pot for nearly 50 years and I’m totally used to it like the millions of people who take their pharma pills every day are used to them. I’d possibly be more dangerous without my daily medication!

‘And what about epileptics who keep their seizures at bay with pot do we really want them to stop driving?’

Mr Balderstone said more people are turning to cannabis because ‘it doesn’t have the side effects of opioids, which we all know can have a huge effect on people’s skills despite not being tested for in the RDT program’.

‘RDT and sniffer dogs have changed drug trends in Australia for the worse in a big way. Pot is the easy bust in every way, bulky and smelly, stinks when you smoke it and stays in your system for weeks because it’s fat soluble.

‘There urgently needs to be federal parliamentary inquiry into RDT and I think it’s the job of the Greens to get this happening if the major parties won’t take it seriously.

‘And most importantly we cannot properly in any way introduce medical cannabis before we sort out the RDT.’