CANNABIS RAFFLED AT $10 A TICKET

It was just another quickfire raffle at work - but the prize wasn't
the usual meatpack or frozen chook.

Instead, the winner would take home an ounce of sticky marijuana
heads.

And ticket seller Timothy Andrew Murphy's number was up when someone
called the police.

In the New Plymouth District Court yesterday, an embarrassed but
smiling Murphy (25), of New Plymouth, admitted he was busted selling
raffle tickets at his work on April 7.

Judge Louis Bidois asked Murphy if he had lost his job as a
result.

Murphy confirmed he had, but said in his defence: "It's been done
before."

Judge Bidois said the scheme was doomed to fail, because when Murphy
asked people to buy tickets, those who disagreed with drugs were sure
to call police.

Police arrived to find Murphy had a book with 40 tickets that he was
selling at $10 each - along with the cannabis prize in his pocket.

"That's what happens when you take cannabis. It muddles people's
brains," the judge said.

"It just proves the stupidity of those who take drugs."

Murphy, now unemployed, was sentenced to 140 hours' community work for
possession of cannabis and offering to sell cannabis, a Class C
controlled drug.