Cannabis row in new legal light

Press, 1 September 1977, Page 4

Cannabis row in new legal light

PA Auckland Judges will have to amend their views when considering sentence for offences involving cannabis, according to Mr Justice Chilwell. He was commenting on the new Misuse of Drugs Act, which came into force on June 1. This reduced considerably the maximum penalties the court could impose in certain cases involving drugs, he said. His Honour made the remarks about the new act when sentencing a man in the Supreme Court at Auckland on five charges of supplying cannabis. He said he wondered whether Parliament was going to remain content to leave the penalties in their reduced form. "Present indications are that New Zealand is getting in a very bad way so far as the drug scene is concerned," said his Honour. “I just wonder that if Parliament was to have the Misuse of Drugs Act before it today, whether it might not revert deliberately to the provisions of the Narcotics Act.”

Under the Narcotics Act, 1965 — repealed when the new' act came into force — the man appearing for sentence would have been liable to a maximum term of 14 years. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1975, the maximum penalty is three months’ imprisonment, and a fine of $5OO on each charge. His Honour sentenced the accused, Carl Anthony Tierney, to six months' periodic detention and fined him a total of $l2OO. Counsel (Mr G. F. Little) had submitted that although Tierney was charged under the old act, the new act was in force at the date of sentence, and his Honour should sentence according to that act.

The law now says that anyone convicted of possessing, using, supplying, or producting class C narcotics shall not be sent to prison, except in special cases. The reverse situation applied under the old act, which said that prison was mandatory, except in special cases.