 | NORML News: Medical user may lose home |
 A sixty-three year old North Auckland man may lose his home after growing cannabis to relieve arthritis reports NORML News Summer 2003-4.
Herb Blakemore was convicted of cultivation and possession for supply, despite the Crown presenting no evidence of any sales.
Mr Blakemore grew 28 plants and had almost four pounds of male leaf and tips.
He told the court he had started using cannabis at the age of 59 to relieve the pain from his arthritis.
NORML president Chris Fowlie testified that despite the cannabis being grown in a shipping container, the setup did not appear to be commercial and the grower did not seem to know what he was doing.
The police agreed it was an amateurish setup and conceded they had no evidence of any sales taking place.
The lack of evidence didn't matter, because the Misuse of Drugs Act says anyone caught with more than one ounce (28g) or growing more than ten plants is presumed to be doing it for sale.
The judge instructed the jury at Auckland District Court that if they had any doubt as to whether it was personal or commercial, they had to find him guilty of supply.
The jury did just that, and the Crown proceeding with an application to take Herb's home under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Mr Blakemore's instructing solicitor, Jim Boyak, has engaged top cannabis barrister Don Mathias to appeal.
Mr Mathias, who literally wrote the textbook on the Misuse of Drugs Act, believes one avenue for appeal is in a recent decision from the House of Lords, which found that if a defendant has a plausible reason for being over the presumptive limit, then the burden of proof switches back to the prosecution to prove that supply did take place.
NORML believes this case could be the one that forces the Court of Appeal to rethink the presumptive limits in the Misuse of Drugs Act. We would like to support the case but we do not have the resources. If you would like to support this appeal, please send a donation to Herb Blakemore, c/- NORML, PO Box 3307, Auckland.
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