MAN CAUGHT WITH DRUG THE DAY IT IS OUTLAWED

A Darwin man who was caught with the anaesthetic ketamine on the day the
Northern Territory parliament outlawed it as a dangerous drug was sentenced
today to two years' jail.

Ketamine mixed with amphetamine is a relatively new hallucinogenic party
drug known as KitKat and Special K.

The parliament added ketamine to Schedule Two drugs on December 14 last
year - the day police raided Emmanuel Iraklis Hatzigeorgiou's unit in
suburban Nightcliff.

Hatizigeorgiou, 24, was sentenced in the NT Supreme Court today after
pleading guilty to possessing a commercial quantity of ketamine (13.4g) and
a trafficable quantity of methylamphetamine (3.4g), or speed.

Defence counsel Phil Cantrill said the Territory designation of 0.1g as a
commercial quantity of ketamine was barely a dose.

It was extraordinarily low compared with amounts set in other States, Mr
Cantrill said.

Including ketamine as a Schedule Two drug was a mistake since a similar
drug PCP - also known as Angel Dust - was categorised as a less dangerous
Schedule One drug, he said.

Justice David Angel described the different categories for ketamine and PCP
as remarkable and incongruous.

But he did not accept that it was an error.

Justice Angel accepted that the quantity of ketamine Hatizigeorgiou had was
for personal use.

But the judge rejected his submission that he thought the ketamine was
amphetamine.

Justice Angel sentenced Hatizigeorgiou to 18 months for the ketamine and
six months for the amphetamine.

The sentence is suspended after serving three months.

The judge accepted that ketamine was legal in some states and illegal in others.