HEAVIER PENALTIES FOR DRUGS ACT BREACHES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29335, 14 October 1960, Page 14

HEAVIER PENALTIES FOR DRUGS ACT BREACHES

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 13. Weaknesses in the existing drug laws, brought to notice in recent Court cases, are eliminated in a Dangerous Drugs Amendment Bill introduced in the House of Representatives today. One Court action disclosed that opium was the only drug it was an offence to possess. The bill prohibits the possession of opium, cocaine and marihuana, known also as hashish or Indian hemp. It was also suggested by the police recently that marihuana was being grown in New Zealand and a new provision prohibits the cultivation of plants, which may be processed into opium, cocaine and marihuana. The list may be extended by regulations. One clause provides that no person shall import, produce, manufacture, sell, distribute or deal in any product obtained from the ecgonine alkaloids of the coca leaf or from the phenanthrene alkaloids of opium -which is not a dangerous drug. New Zealand undertook to honour this restriction in acceding to the Geneva convention governing narcotic drugs, signed at Geneva in 193 L The general penalty for an offence is increased from a fine of £5O to a One of £lOO or three month’s Imprisonment, or both. One clause repeals a section requiring minimum fines to be imposed. The bill increased the penalty for dealing unlawfully, supplying

or being in possession of dangerous drugs from a fine of £5OO 1 or 12 month’s imprisonment, or 1 both to imprisonment for up to I seven years. Selling, administering, giving. ) supplying or offering to sell, a ) dangerous drug to a minor carries i a penalty, on conviction, of up i to 14 years. If, however, a Judge is satisfied that contravention of i the act or regulations was not , wilful, the offender is liable to ■ imprisonment for up to three months or a fine of up to £lOO. )or both. This applies, too, to the i breaches of provisions relating to I the keeping A books or the ■ issuing or dispensing of prescrip- ’ tions or other matters “of a pro- ■ cedural character.” i Provisions outlawing the import production, manufacture, i sale, distribution or dealing in , cocaine and opium products, not ■ otherwise specified as dangerous I drugs, may be qualified. An ■ Ortier-in-Council may declare • that this clause shall not apply to i a product if the Government is > satisfied that the product is of > medical or scientific value. ■ From January 1, the licensing ! of the import and export of i dangerous drug? will pass from the Comptroller of Customs to i the Directors-General of Health i Provisions covering the cultiva- > tion of prohibited plants allow any Customs, health or police officer to seize and destroy pro- . nibited plants, or the seeds of them, if they ere held without a licence or in contravention of the licence.