Campaigner for cannabis avoids trip to prison

Dakta Green. Photo / Wanganui Chronicle

Legalise cannabis campaigner Dakta Green celebrated on Tuesday night after escaping any penalty from two convictions for two charges of selling cannabis and one charge of possession for sale.

Green faced a sentencing hearing in the Auckland District Court this week before Judge Graham Hubble.

Green said he visited the so-called "Daktory" in New Lynn, a smoking and recreational club, after learning his fate.

"There was no alcohol or drugs but there was plenty of herb."

The club was raided in January and charges he faces from that incident have yet to be heard.

Green was found guilty in January of the offences but Judge Hubble discharged him without penalty. The Crown did not recommend a custodial sentence.

Green said one of the reasons he may have received no penalty was because he had been initially refused bail at the time of his arrest on the basis that he had been facing other charges - charges which were subsequently thrown out. Green said he also told the judge that a custodial sentence would restrict his ability to travel in the next three months and lead a "hikoi" of vehicles from Cape Reinga to Parliament to try to legalise cannabis.

The convoy is due to arrive at Parliament at 11am on Armistice Day, November 11. He is due to appear in court again on November 15.

"We are travelling to every electorate member of Parliament's office throughout the length and breadth of the country and we are going to open a daktory in every place we stop in the evening."

The temporary daktories will be set up in marquees and broadcast on the internet, as would whatever was happening at the New Lynn daktory.

"People will begin to understand that we are just a whole bunch of normal people.

"We are your next door neighbours, your family and your friends. We are going to Parliament to demand that they stop locking us up."

Green said that of 20 charges he has faced since 2006, he had been convicted of only three.