Cannabis grower denied home detention

A year for pot, fur krise ake! $200 tonnes or more is dispatched benignly, the social harms are weak, and harms to self, while also ‘very weak’ who the hell cares? Judge Harding has just added about $100,000 to the ‘pterodactyl prevention’ budget. Further, this man will probably never work again and who could blame him. No doubt the Police could equally argue that they have saved the community Millions…. Puke! /Blair

Cannabis grower denied home detention

Monday July 07, 2008

Home detention was “inappropriate” for a man who had been growing cannabis to supplement his sickness benefit, a judge said today. It was precisely the sort of offending Lawrence Frederick Williams had been committing from home, said Judge Christopher Harding in Tauranga District Court.

Williams, 43, was jailed for 12 months when he appeared for sentence on four charges – cultivating, possessing and supplying cannabis, and possessing methamphetamine.

He had converted a bedroom for growing cannabis, a drug he had been smoking for 20 years. The window of the purpose-made room was blocked to prevent neighbours from seeing the glow of the grow lamps.

The defendant was nabbed after police visited the house on an unrelated matter, smelt dope and found the drugs. There were 30 plants about eight weeks old and 338g of dried cannabis material.

He told police he had sold enough “tinnies” for $20 each over the previous two months to make $1000. The rest he smoked himself.

Lawyer Jim Smylie said Williams acknowledged he had a problem with cannabis and had also had trouble with alcohol. (The problem was the ‘law!’, cannabis is not criminogenic, what kind of dum harse lawyer is this guy. The evidence should be before the court, the evidence is exonerative.) Prohibition incentivise’s ANY cash value in excess production. )

“But he has solved that. He has been off the booze for three years.” (displacing another harm of great consequence to society?)

Since appearing in court in May, Williams had started a fulltime forestry job and was “trying to do something with himself,” Mr Smylie said.

Judge Harding ruled out community work and home detention. Williams, he said, had a “significant addiction”. (compared to what?)

After his release from prison, special conditions would remain in place for six months, including treatment for drug and alcohol dependency. (and the success rate is?)

Six months imprisonment for cultivating cannabis, plus a month each for possessing cannabis and a small amount of methamphetamine will be served concurrently with the year imposed for selling the drug. (Ohhhh Dear, A year for an honesty offence! )

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10520390&ref=rss

Jacob Sullum comments on the new World Health Organization study:..

One thing that’s clear is the point made by the WHO researchers: Drug use “is not simply related to drug policy.”

If tinkering with drug policy (within the context of prohibition) has an impact, it is hard to discern, and it’s small compared to the influence of culture and economics. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/07/the-stupid-drug.html

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Court limits student speech in ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ case

LTE sent to http://www.theworldlink.com/

The Supremes ‘Bong Hits’ ruling serves only to elevate the double standards and entrench the unresolved tensions surrounding illicit drugs, in particular cannabis. The bio-psychosocial set and setting in which this event occurred (and will manifest again and again) produces a litany of counter-intuitive consequence which directly and indirectly harm our children. Set aside that millions of young folk wear clothing associated with alcohol, cars and numerous other dangerous and illegal activities, young people are equipped with bull shite detectors and a deep sense of justice. I fully expect that the T-Shirt silk screens & Bumper Sticker presses will be whirring at full speed to meet demand. And so they should. The Supremes have played into youth’s hands on this one. The phrase ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ is now both immortal and powerfully imbued.

/Blair Anderson, Dir. Educators for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.efdsp.org/)

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