Chemist Kept Drugs In Wooden Safe

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32035, 9 July 1969, Page 28

Chemist Kept Drugs In Wooden Safe

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 8. A chemist was discharged without conviction by Mr D. G. Sinclair, S.M., today on the first prosecution under the April 1, 1969, amendment to the Narcotics Regulations.

Edward Lawrence Wood admitted that, being a person in possession of narcotics that were not required for immediate use, he failed to keep these in a locked cupboard constructed of metal.

Sergeant T. B. Wallace, said the shop had been burgled on the night of June 18. When examining the premises the police saw that the narcotics had been kept in a flimsy wooden safe, instead of the metal one required by the amended regulations. The defendant had said he had ordered the new metal

safe last year, but it had not arrived until a week before the burglary. He had not transferred the narcotics to the new- safe because he had not found a place to put the new safe. The narcotics taken from the shop had not been recovered, Sergeant Wallace said. Counsel, Mr J. H. Wallace, asked for a discharge without conviction because a conviction would mean that Wood would lose his licence to distribute narcotics. The Magistrate said the consequences would be out of proportion to the offence. Wood was ordered to pay $2O costs.