NORML LEADER GUILTY

Cannabis campaigner Abe Gray is hoping to escape conviction for
possessing cannabis and resisting and obstructing police at a student
market day outside the Otago University Students Union building last
year.

United States-born Abraham Gabriel Gray (26), leader of the Otago
chapter of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
(Norml), had denied possessing 2g of cannabis plant and resisting and
obstructing police on July 10.

The charges were to have been the subject of a defended hearing before
Judge Emma Smith in the Dunedin District Court yesterday but Gray
changed his plea.

An associated charge of possessing a pipe for smoking cannabis was
earlier withdrawn by police.

Following Gray's guilty plea to the remaining three charges, counsel
John Westgate asked for no conviction to be entered and for Gray to be
remanded until later this month for an application for a discharge
without conviction.

Judge Smith remanded him on bail to February 27.

The summary from Senior Sergeant Steven Armitage said two
plain-clothes police officers went to the campus after complaints
about a small group of people at a market day outside the student union.

The officers saw Gray in a group of people using a small magnifying
glass to light cannabis they were smoking from a small multicoloured
glass pipe.

When the group stopped smoking, the defendant put the pipe in his
jacket pocket.

A police officer approached him and advised him he was being searched
under the Misuse of Drugs Act but Gray was unco-operative.

He refused to move away from the crowd for the search and began
disputing that he could be searched, accusing the officers of
breaching his rights.

He was warned he could be arrested if he refused to allow the search
but remained unco-operative and was arrested.

As Constable Brendan Harris was leading him to a police vehicle, Gray
tried to pull away.

He began yelling to the crowd for help, claiming he was being
assaulted.

A second officer had to assist Const Harris take Gray to the police
vehicle but the defendant refused to get in.

He struggled with police, again claiming he was being assaulted and
trying to incite the gathering crowd to "rescue" him.

He was soon restrained and handcuffed before being forced into the
rear of the patrol car and taken to the Dunedin Central Police Station.

The glass pipe and a container with 2g of cannabis were found by
police when they searched him.

Gray declined to make a statement.

He said he had done nothing wrong and police were breaching his
rights.