Paul Smith and legalise cannabis advocate Maki Herbert outside the Whangārei District Court on Tuesday. Photo / Shannon Pitman
Paul Smith and legalise cannabis advocate Maki Herbert outside the Whangārei District Court on Tuesday. Photo / Shannon Pitman
A Northland man could face 14 years imprisonment for allegedly supplying cannabis products to help relieve sufferers from the pain of long-term illnesses.
Paul Smith, known as “Gandalf” within the cannabis community, appeared in the Whangārei District Court on Tuesday for a case review hearing accompanied by a crowd of supporters.
At least 20 people lined the street outside the courthouse with signs supporting Smith.
His supporters, which included nurses, told NZME Smith’s alleged activities helped people who could not afford a legal cannabis prescription access products.
Smith, 66, was arrested in March on three charges of cultivating, supplying and possession of cannabis after a police raid on his Far North home.
Cannabis is considered a class C controlled drug and comes with a maximum penalty of eight years.
At that hearing he pleaded not guilty, elected a trial by jury and was granted bail to a case review hearing which was adjourned from April until this week.
When he entered the dock and police announced there were three new charges, his lawyer Mark Edgar, who appeared via audio visual link from Auckland, advised they knew nothing of them.
The three new charges relate to the cultivation, supply and possession of cannabis oil to a person in New Plymouth on May 2, 2024 and February 25, 2025.
Edgar told the court disclosure from the initial charges had been slow coming from the police and requested a further case review date.
Paul Smith with supporters of cannabis legalisation outside the Whangārei District Court. Photo / Shannon Pitman
Judge Taryn Bayley agreed Smith needed more time to give instructions to his lawyer and advised that all the charges are “connected by time, place and circumstance”.
Cannabis oil is a class B controlled drug and each charge carries a maximum penalty of 14 years.
Smith told NZME as he was leaving court “the police are just trying to f*** with me”.
Smith will next appear in the Whangārei District Court in July.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.
