Man found guilty of cannabis charges after personal use claim rejected

File photo / Thinkstock

A Westport man's claim that that he intended to personally use the 8.5kg of cannabis found in his possession has been rejected by a Greymouth District Court jury.

Ian Alfred Cole, 58, was found guilty and remanded for sentencing at a later date on two charges of possessing cannabis for supply.

The jury found Cole not guilty of possessing LSD for supply, and he admitted a fourth charge of cannabis cultivation.

The law decrees that anything over 28g (1oz) of cannabis is presumed to be for sale. Cole had 1436g of cannabis head; much of it in bags labelled with their respective weights; in backpacks, plus 6kg of cannabis leaf in a freezer when his car and house were searched on June 25, 2011.

A search of the car revealed a small amount of cannabis, tweezers, three tabs of LSD and a small set of scissors in a metal container, 3g in a tobacco pouch and about 500g of cannabis head, much of it in self-sealing plastic bags labelled with its weight.

A search of Cole's house revealed three self-sealing bags each containing an ounce of cannabis, another 936g of head in a backpack and 6kg of leaf in an old freezer. Police also found digital scales, $2000 in cash, and a grow-room holding 20 new cannabis plants.

A police expert said it would have been physically impossible for Cole, smoking five to six joints a day, to use up the 1.5kg of cannabis head within two years, without worrying about the leaf in the freezer, or the product from the new plants.

Cole said that he had been using cannabis for medicinal purposes for 20 years and had a much higher tolerance for the drug than casual users have. He claimed the leaf in the freezer was "cabbage" and not much use for anything, and the rest of the cannabis was all for his own use.

The jury did not believe him, finding him guilty yesterday.

The case follows that of an Israeli couple caught with more than 6kg of dried cannabis in Ashburton. They pleaded guilty to cultivation but claimed the stash was for personal use and were discharged without conviction on Monday in return for a $2000 donation to the Salvation Army.