Cannabis offences increase

Press, 3 August 1983, Page 6

Cannabis offences increase

Parliamentary reporter

Drug offending increased 30 per cent last year and cannabis offences reached an all-time high. The annual report of the

police to Parliament said that in spite of the over-all increase, hard-drug offending was reduced to very low levels. “The combined efforts of Customs and the police have reduced the supply of heroin to a trickle,” said the Commissioner of Police, Mr R.

Walton. About 550 g of heroin and 2g of morphine were seized, compared with 780 g of heroin and 870 g of morphine in 1981. This supported intelligence indicating that supplies were scarce. Almost 47,000 cannabis plants and half a tonne of cannabis leaf were seized. These figures were the biggest since records started in 1973.

Mr Walton said cannabis offending greatly increased in all categories. More than 10,700 offences were re-

corded compared with about 8100 in 1981. About 1200 LSD tabs were seized, compared with about 17,500 in 1981. In spite of the low rate of seizings, there was a sharp increase in LSD use towards the end of last year when it was readily available in main centres throughout New Zealand. The power of search without warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act was used 484 times. Drugs were

seized on 358 occasions. A total of 29 applications for interception warrants were applied for under provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act. Four of these were for multiple warrants for several locations at once. No .applications were refused. Prosecutions resulting from evidence obtained from using listening devices totalled 24. Persons charged faced multiple drug-dealing charges.