At the age of 21, Steven Reece Galbraith has a criminal record stretching to five pages of print-out, mostly for dishonesty offences to get money to support his drug habit.
He is now beginning an 18-month prison term as one of two men arrested for a cannabis-growing operation in the old disused school buildings at Darfield, a township near Christchurch.
Galbraith, an unemployed factory hand, had pleaded guilty to the charge of cultivating cannabis in an operation police said was commercial with a yearly wholesale turn-over of $87,500. Seventy-three plants were found in the raid on July 18 last year.
His co-offender was jailed for two years and three months on Friday.
Defence counsel Kerry Cook clarified a statement in the pre-sentence report, made by Galbraith during his interview. Galbraith had said he wanted to raise $20,000. That was not proceeds expected from this drug operation but the total he believed he needed to make a start in life.
Christchurch District Court Judge Colin Doherty noted Galbraith's 21 convictions over five years in the district court, and his assessment as a continuing high risk offender.
"You have not demonstrated any ability to manage your risk and get on with your life in a pro-social way."
Jailing Galbraith, he said: "I can't escape the view that this was commercial drug dealing of quite a significant nature and deterrence is the primary purpose of sentencing you."
