Mixing drugs

It is obvious that members of the Northern Territory judiciary need to be educated with regards to the provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

I am referring to “Butter is better” (NT and Beyond, July 2). A person facing a charge of possessing 50g of cannabis butter had that charge dropped after a confusing exchange between Magistrate John Lowndes and the prosecutor.

Mr Lowndes said he did not know how one could quantify the amount of cannabis in the butter.

This is quite odd as the law clearly states that there is no need for a judge or magistrate to quantify the amount of cannabis in the butter. According to the law, it was 50g of cannabis.

Labor’s “Tough on Drugs” package, implemented in 2002, included amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act that ensure that the total weight of a mixture of substances which contains an illicit drug is now taken to be the weight of the drug contained in the substance.

For example 0.5gm of amphetamines mixed with 0.5gm of glucose equals 1gm amphetamines. Cannabis butter is no different.

Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act is clear. A reference to a dangerous drug includes a reference to: “a preparation or mixture of that dangerous drug (which may include a substance that is not a dangerous drug) that contains any proportion of that dangerous drug”.

Supreme Court Justice Dean Mildren has already questioned these new provisions.

In October last year, he refused to accept a man's guilty plea to having a commercial quantity of amphetamines because the amount was not specified as "pure".

He said: “I would be astounded if Parliament meant you could mix 1 per cent of a dangerous drug with flour and even if it was 99 per cent harmless the whole amount was to be taken into account” (‘Drugs in the mix’, NT News, October 24, 2004).

It is sad to say, but that is exactly what Parliament meant.