Man wins $10,000 from police who wouldn’t let him use pipe

The Queensland Police Service has been ordered to pay $10,000 to a Gold Coast man held overnight at Southport in late 2022 after they confiscated his medical marijuana water pipe.

Gold Coast local Alan Harding was detained at his home, then held in custody for 5.5 hours on November 18, 2022, before being released on bail the next day.

Harding said police officers mockingly farewelled him with the comments “get your bong on” as he left, suffering visible pain from the conditions of his detention.

Harding’s case was heard at the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) after he made a complaint to the Queensland Human Rights Commission.

In his complaint, Harding said officers had discriminated against him by denying him his medication – half a gram of cannabis which he took incrementally across the day – when they took him to the police station to answer questions about a crime allegedly committed some months earlier.

His medical records showed the drug was prescribed for pain from a slipped disk in his lower back and bursitis in one shoulder.

“My shoulder was on fire ... I can even be seen in pain holding my shoulder in the mug shot [picture] they took,” Harding said.

Harding, who represented himself before the tribunal, said he would normally have taken a small dose of medical cannabis “perhaps three or four times” in the time he was in custody.

He said it would have helped reduce his anxiety, eased pain, and could have prevented him from getting so cold that he “begun shaking and thought that he might be entering hypothermia”.

Harding said officers mocked him the next morning as he left, when he told them he required medical attention for his shoulder and prolonged time suffering from the cold.

“They instead of helping mocked me, with one officer opening the door for me [saying] ‘Off ya go mate, go and get your bong on bro!’,” Harding told the tribunal.

As he turned to leave, another officer called out “yeeeeeah” in response, Harding said.

Queensland Police conceded officers had made Harding leave the water pipe at his house and would not let him use it before leaving.

But they disputed other details of Harding’s account, saying he had never been “required” to undertake an interview at the station, and had done so voluntarily, and that he had not asked for medical treatment.

QCAT member Peter Roney KC, who presided over the case, said Harding and the officers who interacted with him each had their own version of events that evening, with “significant differences between each of those versions”.

Roney said the only person who testified that Harding had requested medical treatment was Harding – who contradicted himself when retelling his account. However, Roney said officers’ actions showed they had expected Harding to give his version of events to them in an interview.

He said it was unclear whether officers had mocked Harding as he left, but said it would not be enough to warrant discrimination if they had done so.

Most officers who interacted with Harding at the station said they did not remember him, although an officer who took Harding’s fingerprints recalled he was obviously suffering shoulder pain.

Harding asked for $72,000 in damages, saying his treatment by police was discriminatory, and led to economic losses, hurt and humiliation.

Roney ordered the police service to pay $10,000 to Harding on the grounds he had been denied medication.

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