Pregnant woman jailed for four years for drug dealing

A Feilding mother of five sentenced to four years' jail for drugs offences smiled at her supporters, blew kisses and mouthed "I love you baby" to her partner as she was led to the cells today.

Marie Wereta, 39, appeared in the High Court in Wellington after pleading guilty to possessing methamphetamine, or P, for supply and possessing LSD.

Her lawyer Fergus Steedman said she was at a crossroads in her life and had made a lot of progress since her arrest on December 14, 2005.

Wereta has served one previous three-month jail term and has two convictions for cannabis supply. This time around she was doing the things she had the age and life experience to realise were important, Mr Steedman said.

She has enrolled for grief counselling to deal with the death of a daughter, then aged two, in a car accident in December 1999. The driver, her partner at the time, had driven off in anger after an argument. This unresolved grief led to her downward slide into the abyss of drug addiction, Mr Steedman said.

Wereta has also enrolled in alcohol and drug and sex abuse counselling.

As a drug addict, Wereta has put her own needs before that of her children, aged between two and 22 years. For the last six or seven years she has been physically present for them, but emotionally and intellectually absent.

Wereta's current partner did not use P and was trying to get her to withdraw before her arrest. He has not been able to visit her in custody because of his own unresolved court case.

Wereta, now five months' pregnant, accepted she would give birth in prison.

Her drug dealing operation was not sophisticated with no security cameras -- only a decent set of scales, Mr Steedman said.

Crown lawyer Saul Holt said personal circumstances counted for little with drug dealing offending.

Wereta was caught with 15.4 grams of pure methamphetamine and three teenagers were present when she was arrested. Her partner was also there and tried to stop police carrying out the arrest.

There should be no discount for a guilty plea because Wereta changed her plea after the trial was set to commence, causing great inconvenience, Mr Holt said.

Justice Alan MacKenzie said tests showed Wereta was dependent on P, which she had begun using when she moved to the Manawatu town of Feilding in 2001.

He told Wereta he hoped the sentence would shock her enough to take steps to get a grip on her life and address her addiction.

She was at low risk of re-offending and had high motivation to change, he said.

Justice MacKenzie sentenced Wereta to four years' jail for the possession of P with intent to supply and three months for possession of LSD, to be served concurrently.

He said the $1400 found at her house was to be forfeited and the drug paraphernalia was to be destroyed.

- NZPA