A Dunedin family man was a living a double life, a court has revealed, importing and selling drugs because he could not resist the "easy money''.
Cameron John McLachlan (32) appeared before the Dunedin District Court last week having admitted importing the class C analogue BK-EBDP, or Ephylone as it was better known.
He also pleaded guilty to 17 counts of selling the drug and three of offering to sell it.
The father of two rugby-playing sons had no previous drug-related convictions and a ``history of good employment'', his counsel Andrew Dawson said.
Letters from friends and family provided to the court showed the offending was out of character, he submitted.
But Mr Dawson said McLachlan was going through a stressful time before Christmas and ``made a stupid decision'' to continue with the illicit enterprise for a couple of months.
At the start of the year, the defendant contacted a Hong-Kong-based drug exporter and ordered 200g of Ephylone, for which he paid $US700 ($NZ959).
The class C substance was a ``sought-after drug on the party scene'', according to Judge Michael Crosbie, and it had similar effects to MDMA.
It was usually sold in 0.1g gelatine capsules for as much as $40 each.
McLachlan provided a fictitious name and had the package diverted to another address for pick-up.
But the Ephylone never found its way to Dunedin.
The parcel arrived at the international mail centre in Auckland and was opened to reveal 204g of the drug.
It had a possible street value of $40,800, the court heard.
In March, police executed a search warrant at McLachlan's home where they found digital scales and evidence of international money transfer to China.
Before the shipment had been intercepted, the defendant had sold 9.1g for $2200 and offered 3.1g for sale.
Judge Crosbie said there was no evidence of an earlier importation and McLachlan may have had another source for the party drugs.
When he was arrested, the man was co-operative with police, the court heard.
``The allure of additional income was to hard to surpass,'' McLachlan told officers.
Although he claimed he had only sold to his mates, the judge said that counted for very little when it came to sentencing.
``They often end up in the hands of the young or the addicted,'' he said.
``You were not a man in the throes of an addiction, guided by that addiction ... There's an aspect here of simply profiting, greed, trying to make a buck.''
Mr Dawson said his client had been to drug counselling sessions and had been deemed a low risk of reoffending by Probation.
A sentence of home detention was suitable, he said.
The judge disagreed.
McLachlan had contributed to ``the market of misery'', he said, before jailing him for two years and four months.
