The lawyers’ eyes glaze over as the afternoon wears on and the judge trots out the tired old mantra that “denunciation and deterrence are the paramount factors in drug dealing sentences”.
The punter in the dock still pretends it’s all a surprise even though he’s been through this before. He lets a tear run down his cheek as he remembers his lawyer’s advice to keep his head down and to wring his hands.
But no amount of handwringing will change this sentence for dope growing and, following a dated Court of Appeal judgment, a sentence of two and a half years is handed down. There is a murmur from the back of the court. A cry of denunciation? Far from it. The denunciation from the judge has fallen on deaf ears. The gallery’s disagreement is murmured as loudly as they dare lest the judge gets angry and clears the court.
Denunciation is a joke when it comes to cannabis dealing or cultivation. Rather than being shamed, this defendant holds his head high when his sentence is passed. He feels no whakama. No more handwringing and cringing. He looks to his family who look back at him tearfully. He goes to jail a proud man – one who is esteemed by his community and whose mana is not diminished by the serving of porridge he’s just been given. He is not seen as a crim, just another fallen front line soldier in the failed War on Drugs.
And as for being deterred – well he was deterred from being caught after he was busted in 1984 and went to jail but he certainly wasn’t deterred from growing cannabis for he knows that it is jail that keeps the price of dope up and makes it profitable to grow and sell.
As he sits in the cells, he laughs about the time he and his lawyer were talking when another person had suggested cannabis be decriminalised. They’d both turned on the fool sharply asking him if he wanted to ruin their businesses, for not only is the dope grower dependent on the illegality of it for profit, but so of course is the lawyer. And the Police. And the Courts. And Probation. He laughs. We’d all be screwed if they legalised pot. Think of all those poor prison guards who’d be out of work!
As he waits for the bus to prison, he reads a bit of newspaper left in a cell below. Police are acknowledging that the war on P has not reduced prices nor availability. Despite the jailing of citizens – some for life – there is nothing to show for it. It’s the same for pot, he thinks. When he was busted 30 years ago it was for selling a $20 tinny to an undercover. Hell! He could buy a tank of gas for his Holden for $20 back then. In real terms cannabis has plunged in value as it has increased in availability and potency. What used to be an annual crop with annual shortages has been driven indoors or underground by drug laws. Stronger than ever, it’s now available fresh at a tinny shop near you for $20. Stronger, more available and a cheaper than ever in real terms, he laughs out loud. Discouraged? “I’ve been thoroughly encouraged!” he says.
Which isn’t to say, he admits to himself, that he’d been a bit too cocky. He knew it was bad karma to laugh at Bill who’d been busted selling a tinny – again to an undercover – at a local pub. He suspected that he might rue the day he’d laughed so hard at about Bill’s stupidity. “The cops to me are like the wolves are to the caribou herd. They pick off the lame and stupid, leaving me to go about my business.” But that was when times were better and he had the youth and energy to grow in remote places. Now a hard earlier life as a bushman and farm labourer meant his knees couldn’t handle the hills anymore and he’d grown in his attic. “All that sun available,” he laughs, ”and I had to grow indoors. Think of the cost to the poor bloody planet and my bloody carbon footprint.”
This new jail bird is nothing if not pragmatic and as he sits, shackled in the bus on the long ride to prison, he listens to a young fulla moaning about getting busted. It’s intruding on his quiet enjoyment of the ride as he tries to drift off into a trance, savouring the last words of his family, the last kiss of his wife, her smell, the coolness of her skin….”Holy shit – enough already!” he yells as the jailed teenager starts to cry. “Look boy,” he says “we are the cost of supply. Without us going to jail, no one would pay us for dak. They’d bloody grow it themselves. Get on with your lag and stop your complaining. Stop your snivelling and be grateful for the War on Drugs because it guarantees you a job and an income when you get out.”
Kelly Ellis, Whangarei Labour Candidate, former journalist and current lawyer grubs her living from the criminal justice coalface but dreams of being a better parent and more dutiful partner to her long-suffering family.
The revolving door that is portrayed as the justice system is just another arm of the great ponzi scheme
Great article. How long until the majority realise that most of the harms from ilicit drugs are a direct result of prohabition. Be that from no regulation on the quality, inability to seek help with addiction or mearly having to deal with criminal elements to purchase your fix.
Prohabition has the effect of makeing a controled substance something that is only controlled by criminal elements. Decriminilise, regulate and treat those who suffer from addiction and far more gains will be seen for society as a whole.
When I started thinking , way back in my youth , I realised that it was in fact criminals who had made recreational drugs illegal and that it was entrepreneurs who capitalised on that , who are by definition criminals also . The only honesty here is the person who enjoys drugs for what they are and if they want to keep enjoying their drugs of choice , they must pay both sets of criminals . How odd is that ? It’s against not only common sense but is contrary to physics . How can one thing also be another while heading in the equal and opposite direction ?
The politician who conjures up laws is if they were magicians , then crank up the cost of ones basic existence to create , again as if by a dark yet profitable magic , an entire sub class of people who suffer while they make a few bucks selling an arguably highly pleasurable experience to poor bastards scratching out a life amid the chaos that The War On Drugs leaves in its wake . It’s doubly ironic that it was none other than Tricky Richard Nixon who popularised the phrase War On Drugs . That fact should never be forgotten if one’s trying to find common sense purchase on the absurd and futile endeavour that is that famous American Presidential criminals pet project , The War on Drugs .
For me , the ironies just keep giving however .
The parallels between the lunacy that is the War On Drugs and our core politics is frighteningly similar . Criminals making criminals out of otherwise good people desperately trying to survive while parasitic entrepreneurs make millions from the consequential dysfunction when really ? All most people want is to simply be happy , content and safe knowing tomorrows cost of living will be the same as todays .
While we continue to countenance the presence of neo liberal dogma in our lives this madness will continue unabated . It will continue to pollute or legal system and it will continue to attract sociopaths to Government who get that deadly frisson from torturing us for fun and profit .
It should terrify us all to ponder that our lives , our very existence , is governed by the whims of Criminals .
Totally agree with the underlying notion that the War on Drugs has failed. So why then are Labour still refusing to change their position. Will Labour change the status of cannabis? Will Labour allow medicinal users the right to access their preferred medicine? Will Labour do anything to change the current situation? It doesn’t sound like it to me – Cunliffe has stated their position is the status quo.
It’s ridiculous!
Labour will allow a conscience vote on decriminalisation should a bill go before the House. With two potential coalition partners having decriminalisation as a policy, we might not have to wait for long!
Comments are closed.