Methamphetamine was the most serious illegal drug in New Zealand in terms of the harm it caused, Judge Michael Crosbie told 48-year-old Kelvin Bruce Wisely and to say the effects of its sale and use were insidious was ``an understatement''.
The effects of methamphetamine were seen in growing addictions, young lives ruined, relationships torn apart, young offenders involved in small-scale sales and starting a life of crime and admissions to healthcare services.
``To say you haven't contributed is naive on your part,'' Judge Crosbie told Wisely who last year pleaded guilty to nine charges of supplying and possessing methamphetamine, conspiring to supply it, possessing cocaine and cultivating and possessing cannabis for supply.
Wisely was before the judge in the Dunedin District Court yesterday for sentence and to contest a Crown application to seize $25,110 police found in his bedroom after his arrest on July 19 last year.
He was jailed for seven years and 10 months (concurrent) on four charges of supplying the class A drug methamphetamine and one of possession for supply, with concurrent sentences of six years for conspiracy to supply methamphetamine, two years for cultivating cannabis and possessing it for supply and six months for possessing cocaine.
And Judge Crosbie made an order for forfeiture of the total amount of cash found by the police.
From what he had heard, it seemed the defendant had entered the offending ``intending to make a quick buck'' and with little thought of the consequences, the judge said.
Wisely told police he had been involved for only a few weeks and had been approached ``with an offer too good to refuse''.
The facts summary said the Dunedin Organised Crime Squad became aware last year the defendant was supplying methamphetamine ``on a commercial scale''.
He had an arrangement with a Hamilton associate to have several ounces of the drug sent to him each week, concealed in a thermos flask. A week after the shipment, he would send the cash proceeds from selling the methamphetamine back to the associate.
Wisely sent a package containing $39,500 in cash to an associate in Hamilton last July 17 as payment for the four ounces of methamphetamine he had sold.
Two days later, police intercepted another package addressed to his Milton home and found three ounces of methamphetamine.
The seven ounces of methamphetamine had a wholesale value of between $10,000 and $12,000 and a street value of almost $186,200.
During the search of Wisely's property police found evidence of 11 cannabis plants having been grown, each yielding an estimated two ounces of cannabis, total value $8800. They also found dried cannabis head valued at $3000 in a plastic bag in the defendant's bedroom and 0.6g of cocaine in his wallet when he was arrested.
