MAN DENIES PREPARING CANNABIS FOR SALE

Cannabis should be "under health foods", a man accused of intending to sell
two pounds of cannabis head told his counsel in the Dunedin District Court
yesterday.

Questioned by Crown counsel Marie Grills about a bundle of bank notes in
his possession at the police station on July 12 last year, John Arida
Cockburn (56), a beneficiary, said he had withdrawn $400 from the bank to
give some money to his son, who had just been sentenced to imprisonment.

Cockburn denied the wad of notes was two inches thick, as claimed by a
police officer. The officer was exaggerating or guessing, he said. And,
when asked whether such a bundle of money could be obtained by selling
cannabis, Cockburn said he did not know, that he had got the money from the
bank, putting himself into overdraft.

He agreed his son had been jailed for manufacturing and supplying the class
B drug morphine, but said he did not know much about the matter.

And, in reply to a question from his counsel, Elizabeth Bulger, about what
class of drug cannabis was, Cockburn said it was class C and "should be
under health foods".

Cockburn is on trial charged with cultivating cannabis between January 1
and July 14 last year. He is also jointly charged, with Andrew Barrie
Thomson (32), beneficiary, with possessing cannabis for the purpose of supply.

Both men deny the allegations in the trial before Judge David Saunders and
a jury.

The pair were charged after police went to Cockburn's Maitland St address
on the afternoon of July 14 and found two pounds of quality cannabis head
in various stages of drying.

Cockburn told the court on Tuesday he had been given the cannabis as a
birthday present and had been "bagging" it for his own use when the police
arrived. He had not been dealing with Thomson.

When it was put to him that his claimed high use of cannabis had been
described as "unbelievable" by an experienced drug squad officer, Cockburn
said his medical records from Hanmer Springs would verify he was "one of
the highest cannabis users in New Zealand".

Thomson's evidence was he was at Cockburn's place when the police arrived
because they were discussing proposed maintenance work at his girlfriend's
flat, one of several for which Cockburn had responsibility. He denied he
had been helping Cockburn weigh the cannabis and put it into snap-lock
plastic "deal" bags for sale. The cannabis was "nothing to do with me", he
said.

And notations on a piece of paper found in his wallet referred to various
payments he and his girlfriend were making for a car they were buying at
the time.

He had been a cannabis user in the past, but had not had any for about two
years, Thomson said.