$7000 paid for drugs

Press, 9 December 1982, Page 5

$7000 paid for drugs

Sales of lysergide (LSD) and cannabis' for amounts totalling $7260 to an undercover constable, including 453 grams of cannabis for $3OOO, were alleged in the District Court yesterday against Colin Austin Smith, aged 28, a retailer. The defendant faces 10 charges brought under the Misuse of Drugs Act. After hearing depositions or statements of three of the four prosecution witnesses, Messrs R, C. Holland and H. J. Walker, Justices of the Peace, adjourned the case to today for completion. Mr G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the police and Mr G. R. Lascelles for the defendant. The defendant has elected trial by jury on the charges, comprising one of possessing lysergide (a class A drug) for supply, three of supplying lysergide, one of offering to supply lysergide, one of possessing cannabis plant (a class C drug) for sale or supply, three of selling cannabis plant, and one of offering to sell cannabis. Outlining the 10 charges, Mr Panckhurst said all related to alleged drug dealings between the defendant and an undercover constable between July 15 and September 23. He said in relation to the charge of offering to supply LSD on July 15 that evidence would show that there was a sale of 10 tabs, or doses, on that day of what was purported by the defendant and the undercover constable to be LSD. However, subsequent analysis showed it was not this drug. The defendant was thus charged with the lesser charge of offering to supply

the drug, because a deal allegedly took place and both parties believed it to be LSD. Also, in relation to the charge of supplying- LSD at Nelson the police contended he was a party to this 'deal by introducing the undercover constable to the prospective seller. The sale was made the next day when the constable travelled to Nelson. The defendant was not present at the transaction. Evidence was then given by the undercover constable in relation to each alleged transaction, after he had been first introduced to the defendant in July by another person. He said that on the first occasion he paid $270 for 2oz of cannabis and $9O for 10 tabs of what he believed was LSD. On the second occasion, August 4, he paid the defeandant $lOOO for 230 grams of cannabis, and on August 12 he paid $3OOO for 453 grams of cannabis. Late in August the defendant introduced the undercover constable to a Nelson man who he said could supply “trips” of LSD. Through this meeting he travelled to Nelson on August 26 and paid $2400 for 300 “trips” of LSD, at $8 each. On September 14 he purchased 50 loose "trips” of LSD from the defendant for $5OO. On September 21 the defendant told the witness of a “run” he had to make to Queenstown. The constable offered to drive down in his car and on September 23 they left on this journey, the defendant

saying he had I.skg of “the best Canterbury dope,” and 200 “trips.” At a restaurant in Queenstown the defendant spoke to a man who was introduced as “Chick” and they argued over the sale of the cannabis for $3OOO for 453 grams and the LSD for $lO a “trip." They arranged to meet the next day when the sale was to take place. The constable said that that evening, in a hotel, he was recognised as being a police officer and after a “skirmish” he left the hotel and drove to the Queenstown police station where he and a detective retrieved the cannabis and LSD in his car. Cross-examined, the constable said it appeared the defendant had been a gobetween, between the constable and the supplier, in regard to the LSD. He did not know whether the defendant grew the cannabis or obtained it from another person. He agreed that generally there had been a delay between their preliminary discussions about obtaining cannabis, and the defendant’s supplying it. Asked if he had set the “ball rolling” in seeking to make the drug purchases, the constable said he did not but just stepped on the “bandwaggon.” Mr Lascelles: Your meeting with Smith would never have come about unless you had expressed interest in the first place? Witness: That's correct. Asked if he must have made the initiative in the transactions, the constable said he had been role-play-ing.