Man denies stabbing dealer after 'P' turned out to be salt

A man alleged to have stabbed a northern Hawke's Bay drug-dealer in the hand after finding the "methamphetamine" he had bought was not the real thing is expected to go on trial in the High Court in Gisborne next month.
The man, who was 44 at the time of the incident near Nuhaka last August, is pleading not guilty to charges of wounding and injuring Wairoa man John Gemmell, 38, who is now serving five months' jail for for offering to sell a class-A drug, which turned out to be half a gram of table salt.
Gemmell was sentenced last month in the High Court in Napier after admitting offering a man methamphetamine in exchange for cannabis and cash during a gathering at a marae on August 2.
He was confronted over the quality of the substance the next day and was stabbed in a hand.
In the previous week, a judge turned down a Napier woman's appeal against a conviction based on an attempt to sell salt as methamphetamine. In that case, while the substance was primarily salt, traces of methamphetamine were in the sachets.
While Gemmell pleaded guilty, Napier-based barrister Nigel Hewat told Justice Robert Dobson the offence could be more accurately described as fraud than drug-dealing.
The judge, appreciating the "physical retribution" that had happened, pointed out Parliament was determined to tackle illicit drug-dealing, which was why offences related to dealing in methamphetamine were liable for penalties up to life imprisonment.