Homebake ‘new social evil’—Judge

Press, 29 August 1986, Page 7

Homebake ‘new social evil’—Judge

Homebake heroin had been described as tne new social evil, and the results of its use were horrifying, Mr Justice Williamson said in the High Court yesterday. His Honour jailed Tania Joy Jordan, aged 20, unemployed, for six months, on a charge of conspiring to manufacture heroin. She had pleaded guilty in the District Court.

The Gore police were notified that a Christchurch couple had been purchasing pain-killing tablets from chemist shops in Gore, Mataura, Balclutha, Dunedin and Invercargill, the police statement said.

A Gore chemist told the police that the couple were in his pharmacy.

Their car was searched and 11 empty packets of pain killers were found, and Jordan had $569. More tablets were found in a pharmacy bag in their motel. Jordan was identified as the person who had purchased tablets at 10 chemist shops. The drugs had been obtained for the manufacture of homebake.

For Jordan, Mr Mervyn Glue said that she was a person of considerable intelligence and ability, and expressed herself well, as was evident from

the letter she had written to his Honour. However, she had made some terrible mistakes in her life.

It was sad that drug taking and bad company had caused her to offend. Since her first offences in February, 1982, she had become a nuisance.

During her early offending, Jordan had displayed an attitude that she could not care less and there appeared to be an element of reduced responsibility, probably induced by her drug taking.

Now her attitude had changed completely, and

she was remorseful, realistic and anxious to reform. Jordan’s involvement was minor, and she had been under the influence of an experienced sophisticated criminal.

She had pleaded guilty, and Mr Glue submitted that the offence could be met with a communitycare sentence.

Mr Mark Zarifeh, for the Crown, said that the police accepted that Jordan played a secondary role, but a Court of Appeal ruling made a prison sentence inevitable. Mr Justice Williamson said that the maximum penalty was 14 years im-

prisonment.

Jordan had purchased pain-killing tablets for the manufacture of homebake heroin, which had been described as a new social evil which had horrifying results.

The Court of Appeal had asked the Courts to stop the spread of homebake, and to deter persons from embarking on the disastrous and insidious course which resulted from its use.

Although Jordan had convictions for a number of offences and had served one jail term, this was her first conviction for a drug-related offence, his Honour said.