DRUG-STASH BILLIONAIRE ONE OF THE LUCKY FEW

The American billionaire let off a drugs charge in an Auckland court this
year was one of a lucky few to have been discharged without conviction or
had their name suppressed, a Justice Ministry survey has found.

The billionaire admitted bringing into the country 56 grams of cannabis
resin (hashish) and 47 grams of cannabis leaf.

The results of the survey, released to the Herald yesterday, show that in
the past decade there were 91 proved cases against people bringing in or
taking out hashish.

Of those, 83 were convicted and eight were discharged without conviction
under section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act, like the billionaire.

Of the 83 convicted, 14 were sent to jail, 19 received periodic detention,
one was put on a community programme, seven received community service and
41 were fined. One was discharged. Only one person convicted was granted
name suppression.

In the same 10 years 90 people were convicted of importing or exporting
cannabis plant. Six others were discharged and two were granted name
suppression.

"Name suppression for these particular two offences is rare, but for all
drug cases receiving section 19 discharges in the last 10 years, 5.5 per
cent also received name suppression," the report concluded.

Justice Minister Phil Goff called for the report after the billionaire
case, saying he feared the case would damage public confidence in the
justice system.

Mr Goff said last night that the statistics did not give specific
information on whether the poor were treated differently from the wealthy.

"All you can say is that it is relatively unusual for someone not to be
convicted and it is even more unusual for somebody to have got a
suppression order, but those two things do happen from time to time."

It was not for him to comment on individual cases.