Former Green Party politician Aaryn Barlow’s cannabis plantation was found during aerial reconnaissance by police in the Nelson Bays area last March. Photo / Tracy Neal
Barlow was sentenced in the Nelson District Court to six months’ community detention last October on a list of drugs charges, some serious and involving Class A material.
The former public health promoter and Green Party politician last year admitted charges of cultivating cannabis, possession of the Class A drug psilocybin (magic mushrooms), possession of cannabis for supply in a Class B form (tincture), producing cannabis in a Class B form, possession of cannabis for supply and importing cannabis seed.
The charges followed the discovery of cannabis head worth a significant amount from two of 80 healthy and flourishing plants.
Plot found by police during flyover
Barlow’s plantation at his property in Tapawera was found by police during aerial reconnaissance of a large part of the Nelson Bays area in March last year.
According to the police summary of facts, about 100 “very large” cannabis plants reaching above 2m were seen from the air, growing on three separate areas of the property.
All were fully matured, well-maintained and “extremely well covered in flowering cannabis head”, police said.
A shipping container was set up as a drying room with dehumidifiers, fans and a dozen pairs of pruning shears for tending to the harvested cannabis destined for sale.
A police drug expert selected two plants that were dried, processed and manicured as if for sale.
More than a kilo of cannabis head was obtained from the two plants.
Police found healthy cannabis plants on the Tapawera property of Aaryn Barlow during an aerial search last March. Photo / NZ Police
In addition to the cannabis head, utensils, 9.4g of dried psilocybin, drug paraphernalia and zip-lock bags of commercially prepared cannabis seeds of various strains produced in the United States, police also found two large bags of cannabis packaged to go to “The Green Fairy”.
Green Fairies provide medicinal cannabis, bypassing the current legal system, in which medicinal cannabis could be obtained on prescription.
Barlow said he supplied cannabis to the Green Fairy system as and when required.
Emails found in Barlow’s cellphone and laptop showed he had arranged the purchase and importation of the cannabis seeds from Oregon-based company GTR, which he had visited several years earlier.
Police estimated the yield was valued at more than $400,000 if sold at the average price for a pound of good-quality cannabis head. However, this was disputed at sentencing because the estimate appeared to have overlooked about half was medical cannabis with a lower value.
‘Sophisticated and commercial elements’
Police said Barlow’s operation had a degree of sophistication and commerciality about it.
While his intention might have been to provide cannabis for medicinal reasons, it was still illegal, police said.
The 43-year-old former project manager at Te Whatu Ora – Nelson Marlborough has spent two decades working in the sustainability and public health sectors.
In sentencing him last October, Judge Bill Hastings acknowledged Barlow’s views and beliefs on cannabis for medicinal use, and his own pleadings from the dock for a community-based sentence, but they were serious charges.
Barlow admitted the charges because he did not have a licence to produce medical cannabis, which was legally available in New Zealand on prescription.
He acknowledged earlier that getting a licence was something he should have done.
Police said medical cannabis production was highly regulated to ensure public safety.
No alternative address sought
Judge Hastings asked today if an alternative address had been sought for Barlow to finish his sentence, and was told it hadn’t.
Grey said Barlow had already suffered considerable consequences through the curfew imposed with the sentence, which meant he had been unable to be fully involved in an organic chai tea business he ran with his wife.
He had also not been able to work as a DJ at several summer festivals, and civil matters against his property still hung over his head, Grey said.
“This is not a case where he had a light outcome,” she said.
Grey argued in seeking an alternative sentence that it would be unfair at this stage to impose a more stringent sentence and that non-monitored community detention was “unlawful”.
Corrections argued it was something which occurred rarely, and referred Judge Hastings to a subsection of the Sentencing Act, which he then applied to vary Barlow’s sentence of community detention, with a nightly curfew from 8pm to 5am.
“It’s the most straightforward practical outcome which is legal,” Judge Hastings said.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government, for the Nelson Mail.