Barkly Mayor Jeff McLaughlin denies drug-driving after being arrested twice in six months

The mayor of a remote NT town, who has been arrested twice in the last six months for alleged drug-driving, says he is not ‘some sort of kingpin’.

Barkly Regional Council Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin. Picture: Facebook

The mayor of a remote Northern Territory town, arrested twice in the past six months for alleged drug-driving, says he is not “some sort of kingpin” but rather a user of medicinal cannabis to treat his severe anxiety.

On Friday morning NT Police arrested Barkly Mayor Jeff McLaughlin for alleged drug-driving in Tennant Creek.

The 42-year-old returned a positive roadside test result for cannabis and was charged with driving with a prohibited drug in his body.

Mr McLaughlin told The Australian he is “innocent of all charges” because he is taking prescribed medicinal cannabis.

“I’m on prescription medication and I was pulled over with a rightful prescription medication in my system,” he said. “There is nothing illegal in my medication.”

The father of two, mayor of the Barkly Regional Council since September 2020, said using medicinal cannabis does “not at all” impact his ability to manage the world’s second-largest local government area.

Mr McLaughlin said he had met with high-ranking NT officials on Friday morning before his arrest. “They have all confirmed that I was not intoxicated in any way whatsoever,” he said.

He said he was leaving a town camp when detectives pulled him over. “I went to go pick up my councillor and she had to have a shower so I could get her to the meeting, so I waited outside her house for five minutes and just as she got in and I drove out, detectives were literally waiting for me.”

He was taken to the police station and placed in the watch-house before being granted bail.

The mayor said he had been prescribed cannabis to help him cope with the “extreme anxiety” he’s been suffering since his first arrest five months ago.

On September 9, Mr McLaughlin was charged with drug-driving as well as possessing, cultivating and supplying cannabis.

Police alleged he tested positive to cannabis in a roadside test in Tennant Creek and officers seized “a number of cannabis plants and material” from his home.

Mr McLaughlin, also a musician, said he will fight the charges.

He claims since then he has felt like “a prisoner” and been followed by local police on at least eight occasions. “Tennant Creek is the highest police state in the world and everywhere I go they follow me. They think I’m some sort of kingpin.”

Mr McLaughlin, who sings in a heavy metal band on weekends, said he has “suffered extreme trauma” since his first arrest. “I have used my prescribed medication to deal with my anxiety issues. I’ve had anxiety since I was 16 and my best friend passed away in a horrific accident at Pizza Hut.

“I’ve carried this through my whole adult life. It was totally (exacerbated) when all this happened in September.”

Mr McLaughlin, who worked at a BP service station and ran a playgroup before being elected to council in 2017, said he had sought help from medical professionals since his September arrest and had already made significant lifestyle changes prior to that incident.

“On the 18th of January last year I gave up drinking alcohol and went back into training,” he said. “It was just a personal thing to say I’m tired of stealing happiness from tomorrow all the time and in my role, like the great Bob Hawke, I decided to have a break from it and concentrate on my own personal wellbeing.”

He has focused on his fitness, paddling 25km on Mary Anne Dam every second day and training for the Gregory Race in April.

Mr McLaughlin, who writes and performs his own music through his persona, Dr Flouride, will face Alice Springs Local Court on February 27.