Coasters ‘not used to law’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33693, 16 November 1974, Page 3

Coasters ‘not used to law’

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 15.

Members of a United States pop group, the Coasters, did not regard possession or smoking of cannabis as a serious criminal offence because of the quite radically different laws relating to the drug in their home state of California, the Auckland Magistrate’s Court was fold tndav.

*• Before Mr B. H. Blackwood, S.M., Robert Joseph Sheen, aged 33, and Billy Jene Richards, aged 31, both admitted a charge of possessing cannabis on November 12. Randle Willie Jones, aged 38, admitted a s eparate charge of smoking cannabis on November 10. Sergeant B. S. Boreham said detectives had found a reefer cigarette containing cannabis, and a plastic bag containing the remains of a buddha stick and reefer butts in a drawer in Sheen’s motel room. He said he had gathered these up after a party the night before. The police had also found

reefer butts and a buddha stick containing cannabis in Richards’ room. Jones told them he had smoked the naicotic last Sunday. Counsel, Mr B. R. Latirnour, said the group lived in Los Angeles, where the possession of such a small quantity of cannabis would not bring prosecution. If the entertainers had been aware of the New Zealand laws, they would have disposed of the reefers,

The group had suffered from the publicity about the charge, and some bookings had been cancelled. Because of a subsequent gap in bookings, the group was considering doing a charity concert for prisoners in Dunedin before leaving New Zealand on December 1. The Magistrate said he would treat the group members as New Zealand citizens coming before the Court as first offenders. Because there was no suggestion of bringing the drug into the country, the penalty was to be lighter than it might have been. He fined Sheen, Richards, and Jones $lOO each. They were to remain in custody until this was paid. This afternoon the group sent a telegram cancelling the charity concert offer, said the Dunedin booking agent.