DOOR SLAMS ON DEALERS - MARIJUANA LIMIT CUT TO THREE PLANTS

SOUTH Australians caught growing more than three cannabis plants will
now face criminal charges.

Cabinet has approved in principle new regulations cutting the
personal-use limit on cannabis plants from 10 to three.

The change comes in response to police concerns that existing laws are
allowing drug dealers to grow cannabis and take it to the eastern
States for sale or exchange for harder drugs.

Currently, people caught growing 10 plants or fewer are fined up to
$150 with no conviction recorded.

The Human Services Minister, Mr Brown, said yesterday new regulations
would go to Cabinet and be finalised in the next few weeks.

"That means that for up to three plants there will be an expiation
fine for possession or growing," he said.

"However, beyond that it would become a criminal offence."

Detective Superintendent Rob Maggs, of the Drug Task Force, said the
10-plant rule, when introduced in 1987, had not taken into account the
revolution in hydroponics techniques which would allow a single plant
to produce a large amount of dried cannabis.

He said 10 plants could now generate more than $300,000 a year on the
street market.

"They're much larger now than they used to be, and the quality and the
purity of them is much more improved," Detective Superintendent Maggs
said.

"Marijuana that is cultivated here is being used as a commodity to
swap for stronger drugs and is also being conveyed to other States."

Mr Brown said the recommendation to reduce the number of plants had
come from Parliament's Controlled Substances Advisory Committee, which
includes medical and police representatives.

The Police Commissioner, Mr Mal Hyde, who yesterday addressed the
Australasian Conference on Drug Strategy in Adelaide, outlined the
scale of cannabis production in SA.

Mr Hyde said interstate commissioners had told him the production of
cannabis in SA was adding to their illicit drug problems. "We are a
net supplier," he said.

"A lot of cannabis is going interstate."

Mr Hyde said a pound (about 450g) of cannabis sold here for $3500,
while it sold in the eastern States for $4500.

The Opposition justice spokesman, Mr Michael Atkinson, said cannabis
laws were a conscience vote in the Labor Party, but he supported the
actions of the Government.

"Some of these plants are huge - if you get the right kind of plant
they can generate vast amounts of cannabis," he said.

"Three plants would be quite sufficient for one person to
use."

The Australian Democrats State parliamentary leader, drug law reform
proponent Mr Mike Elliott, said the move would not make "an iota of
difference in terms of supply".

"Cannabis consumption in SA is the same as in other States - it hasn't
gone up because of our drug laws, so it's hard to see what this is
trying to achieve," he said.

The director of Flinders University's National Centre for Education
and Training on Addictions, Dr Steve Allsop, said the change "doesn't
signify a toughening of the stance on drugs".