7 January 2011

Police Wrap - 7 January 2011

| johnboy
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1. Six plants in a dog box?

ACT Policing has seized six cannabis plants, approximately 100 cannabis seeds, a small amount of dried cannabis and a container of suspected cannabis resin from an inner city flat this afternoon (Thursday January 6).

Members from City Police Station attended the Ainslie Avenue flats for an unrelated matter yesterday (Wednesday January 5) where they observed a number of cannabis plants on the window sill of a unit.

General Duties officers executed a Drugs of Dependence warrant on the residence around 1.30pm today.

A 21-year-old man will be summonsed to attend the ACT Magistrate’s Court at a later date, charged with a number of drug offences.

2. It never pays to be predictable:

ACT Policing has arrested two men for an attempted armed robbery last night (Thursday January 6) in Tuggeranong.

Around 9.30pm a 33-year-old Kambah man and 33-year-old Bruce man were arrested following an attempted armed robbery at the Woolworths Supermarket in Kambah.

These arrests are part of a long term investigation in relation to several armed robberies over the last 18 months.

Both men are expected to be charged with conspiracy to commit an armed robbery and will appear in the ACT Magistrates Court today.

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JustThinking said :

I really don’t understand the issue.
Six plants on a windowsill (either small plants or a BIG windowsill) and 100 seeds..
If the guy was any type of a grower/trafficker he’d have 100 plants on the windowsill and 6 seeds.

Really,,,it will go to court and be adjourned,,then go again and probably be adjourned again. Then after a bit he will state he is addicted and was for his own use. They’ll give him a bond and maybe even some “program” and he’ll go home and grow another few plants.
Save the courts time and take the guys plants/seeds and fine him.

As said I guess it is up to the police at the time to decide.

Again, a fine wasn’t an option for the police in this case, although I imagine that’s what the court will give him. I think we’d all agree it’s not the crime of the century and it’s not a drug bust of any significance, however if police stumble across this kind of thing, they have to deal with it under the relevant legislation.

JustThinking8:18 pm 10 Jan 11

I really don’t understand the issue.
Six plants on a windowsill (either small plants or a BIG windowsill) and 100 seeds..
If the guy was any type of a grower/trafficker he’d have 100 plants on the windowsill and 6 seeds.

Really,,,it will go to court and be adjourned,,then go again and probably be adjourned again. Then after a bit he will state he is addicted and was for his own use. They’ll give him a bond and maybe even some “program” and he’ll go home and grow another few plants.
Save the courts time and take the guys plants/seeds and fine him.

As said I guess it is up to the police at the time to decide.

Uhh, #1 isn’t a misconception, that would be fact – having 2 plants is decriminilised (though still illegal), meaning an on-the-spot fine can be issued. This rule also appears to be on a per-person basis, ie: If two people are living in a house and four plants are found, two SCONs can be issued, though I’d say this is largely based on the attending officer’s opinion/interpretation of the law.

I love the rag-time anti-smoker battlers that I see post personal attacks and vitriol on each and every riot thread to do with the subject. You love to point out inconsistencies within pro-drug arguments (some of them quite justified, stoners aren’t the best choice for a heated and coherent debate) and then shovel out the same, tired, straw-man drivel that 85% of your loosely collective group of anti-drug rioters seem to dig into whenever you a) See a chance to look good due to your obvious moral superiority, or b) Look like an idiot because a 28 year old medical graduate crystal meth user bursts your bubble that all drug users are junkie scum living in flats and apartments that want to hurt your children and will never achieve anything substantial in life as long as they’re using drugs recreationally. Its the kind of behaviour and argumentative style I’d expect of a 15 year old trying to convert their classmates at a summer bible camp.

Here’s a (fittingly) silly argument to try and illustrate how you and your supporters look to the rest of us: If I were to make it illegal to grow chillies, for instance, due to their ability to be physically and mentally harmful (you ever cooked for a chilli addict? Good god..), you would be the kind of ignorant anybodies that would be first in line to spout your support to the public. ‘Try some chilli, you’ll look silly’ I hear the protectivist parents shout from the rooftops, ‘Don’t want to die? Avert thine eye’. ‘Jalapeno? Just say no’. You get the picture. Your (incomplete) perspective is tainting your ability to think logically (1s and 0s, rights vs no rights) about an argument that should be a no brainer – you have effectively allowed a constantly changing group (the government) that roughly only 50% of the country agree with at any four year interval (elections, keep up), to tell you a) What you can and can’t eat without being punished (see how dumb that sounds?) and b) What kind of plants and flowers you are allowed to grow (again, seeing the pattern here?). Punish somebody for actually committing a crime, not for using a substance that could or could not increase their chances of committing a crime – what is this, 1984? Now my poor generation is going to have to fight years of inbuilt ignorance and bigotry just to de-demonize the large percentage of the Australian population that has/does use drugs on a recreational basis. Of course there are those that ruin it for all of us, but this minority can be compared to those drunks in the city that you begrudgingly tolerate so as not to look like a complete dick. Drug users are giving you an outlet to still look like a dick, but also look justified, as if a nearly century old law (humans have been on the earth for MUCH longer, just an fyi) created by bigots in response to prohibition is all the support you need. Perhaps you should ingest some pure MDMA and chill the fuck out instead of bringing more hate and division into the world, as if you’re better than anybody else. Grow up, such immaturity is very unbecoming.

Please excuse any grammatical errors in this ranting response, the wall of text is too much for my tired eyes to scan over more than once. In response to the actual article, the guy was clearly an idiot – he left 6 plants on his balcony in plain view of a road or car park and was served a day later. He’ll be fined and potentially have a minor drug charge on his sheet, big deal, its the price you pay for stupidity/laziness. Congratulations to the ACT police on busting the two bandits that have been terrorising shops around Canberra, shame it took 18 months to catch them, guess they weren’t stupid enough to leave their cash bundles on the balcony of a flat in Ainslie Avenue.

dvaey said :

Tooks said :

The police already ignore minor crimes. The line gets drawn by the police, on site, as they see fit.

Sure, which is why the courts are clogged with people being charged with relatively minor crimes.

Funny, I thought the courts were being clogged because lawyers were dragging out cases that didnt need to be dragged out.

Wrong.

Cases which should be brought before the court and resolved swiftly, are taking years to progress through the system.

You’re getting the Magistrates Court confused with the Supreme Court.

Well, that and the very minor offences which the police were bored enough to see if charges could stick.

Moronic comment, even for you.

How much tax payers money and court time will be taken up for someone who had 6 little seedlings on his window sill? Could that issue not be better handled by an on-the-spot-fine?

Tax payer money? Not a great deal. Court time? Not much, unless he pleads not guilty, which would be very unlikely given the circumstances.

On the spot fine? If you knew anything about the legislation (which you obviously don’t) you’d know a SCON (simple cannabis offence notice) cannot be given to someone who has 6 plants. So the police who found these drugs really had two options: ignore it, or deal with it. Like it or not, dvaey, cannabis is still illegal. You may think ignoring things like this is the right option, but what kind of message is that sending? If you want to have cannabis legalised, then get off your arse and do something about it, instead of whinging from the sidelines.

Yet another life destroyed because of the war on drugs

Yes, I’m sure his life will be destroyed after he cops a miniscule fine after pleading guilty. You’re assuming this person is a clean skin who’s never done anything wrong in his life (which may be the case, but given police were there for another matter when they found the drugs, it’s doubtful). It’s possible he has a long history of dealing drugs.

dvaey, couldn’t have said it better myself…..

Tooks said :

The police already ignore minor crimes. The line gets drawn by the police, on site, as they see fit.

Sure, which is why the courts are clogged with people being charged with relatively minor crimes.

Funny, I thought the courts were being clogged because lawyers were dragging out cases that didnt need to be dragged out. Cases which should be brought before the court and resolved swiftly, are taking years to progress through the system. Well, that and the very minor offences which the police were bored enough to see if charges could stick.

How much tax payers money and court time will be taken up for someone who had 6 little seedlings on his window sill? Could that issue not be better handled by an on-the-spot-fine? If there were 100 plants instead of 100 seeds, that would be a different story. Yet another life destroyed because of the war on drugs, but at least a few people will be ‘saved’ from being stoned in 6 months, so they’ll just go get drunk and get into a brawl in civic instead, much better outcome.

The police already ignore minor crimes. The line gets drawn by the police, on site, as they see fit.

Sure, which is why the courts are clogged with people being charged with relatively minor crimes.

Maybe he didn’t show enough respect for their authoritar and needed a follow up visit. Fair enough, he will learn.

That’s quite a chip you’ve got there.

+1 for Mr Evil…

That’s against the law, BUT it’s ok to have needles in our prison, what a joke! The law is an ass.

“Maybe he didn’t show enough respect for their authoritar and needed a follow up visit. Fair enough, he will learn.”

fgzk, you really do have a forest on your shoulder, don’t you.

Tooks “So they should ignore all minor crimes? Especially ones they discovery accidentally? Where should the line be drawn (minor theft, minor property damage etc)?”

The police already ignore minor crimes. The line gets drawn by the police, on site, as they see fit. Maybe he didn’t show enough respect for their authoritar and needed a follow up visit. Fair enough, he will learn.

Always better to be damned for something you have done.

I wouldn’t worry Tooks, they can’t win in any case. Either thier lazy for not taking action or over zealous when they do …… Damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Pfft

Hats off to the boys in blue for the bust of the century (#1). The gruelling war on drugs appears to have been officially won

So they should ignore all minor crimes? Especially ones they discovery accidentally? Where should the line be drawn (minor theft, minor property damage etc)?

What a joke. Clogging up our courts and criminalising some poor sod because he grew a couple of plants so that he could get high and bother no-one. Meanwhile the Thuggies manage to evade the long arm of justice for a fourth consecutive year with the number of victims surpassing three figures.

Top marks for spouting uninformed, ignorant bollocks.

Six canabis plants, 100 seeds, etc eh? It’ll cost thousands of dollars to try this individual when an on the spot fine would’ve done.

Thanks for that excellent explanation, Mystery2Me.

M2M – finally somebody posts the truth. Don’t worry the flames are sure to follow.

To the pro-stoners, if you don’t like the current legislation then there is a process to attempt to change it.

If people out there want to feel good, reduce their stress, enjoy better sleep and physical wellbeing then go for a long run.

With respect to cannabis in the ACT, it is illegal to:

* use it yourself
* administer it to someone else
* possess any quantity of it
* cultivate or be involved in cultivating any quantity of it
* have any quantity of it for sale or supply

The Drugs of Dependence Act 1989 was amended to reduce the number of cannabis plants which can be dealt with by way of a Simple Cannabis Offence Notice (SCON) from five to two and the exclusion of all hydroponically or artificially cultivated cannabis plants from the SCON scheme.

The decision was made to exclude hydroponically grown cannabis plants from the SCON scheme as the trend towards hydroponic methods of cannabis cultivation indicated that the quantities of cannabis able to be produced and the potency of that cannabis was no longer in line with the original intentions of the scheme.

The Simple Cannabis Offence Notice (SCON) Scheme allows for a person to possess up to 25gms of dried cannabis, or two cannabis plants (excluding all hydroponically or artificially cultivated cannabis plants) for personal use only. If the fine is paid within 60 days, no criminal record will be recorded. It must be remembered, that possession of any amount of cannabis in the ACT is NOT legal.

Police have discretion whether to issue a SCON or charge an offender with a criminal offence.

He deserves to go big time….. not for his 6 plants, but for being so stupid as not remove them before the police came back. He had a whole 24 hours to cover up his mistake but was probably too “busy” to do anything.

So 21yo from Ainslie Avenue Flats, you’re an idiot

Well done Deref for stating a misconception about cannabis laws in the first post.

georgesgenitals1:08 pm 07 Jan 11

What happened to ‘it’s criminalisation/tax on the stupid’ that we see here so often?

What a joke. Clogging up our courts and criminalising some poor sod because he grew a couple of plants so that he could get high and bother no-one. Meanwhile the Thuggies manage to evade the long arm of justice for a fourth consecutive year with the number of victims surpassing three figures.

Beserk Keyboard Warrior11:42 am 07 Jan 11

Hats off to the boys in blue for the bust of the century (#1). The gruelling war on drugs appears to have been officially won.

Damn they took my blaze away from my junkie flat…..

Six plants might sound like a lot in a small apartment, but if they were on the window sill they must have been tiny little seedlings…

#1 is still a good catch: a small amount for “personal use” is decriminalised but, importantly, still NOT ALLOWED. That’s why there is a Simple Cannabis Offence Notice (SCON) issued for small amounts – ie. a search by police on the street reveals you have a couple of spliffs in your pocket. Growing plants as well as the possession of resin and cannabis seeds is of a higher order of cannabanoid dalliance.

Rawhide Kid Part311:03 am 07 Jan 11

Re No1. Nope. Still illegal. Though if only a very small quanty, a fine is issued.

Good on the rozzers for #2 but, re #1, I thought having a few plants for personal use was decriminalised and generally tolerated.

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