Radio NZ reports
A prominent cannabis advocate, on trial after police discovered two cultivation sites and nearly 100 plants, simplified the jury’s task with his closing speech.
“You have no choice but to find me guilty,” he asserted, arguing that his case centred on the ethics of growing one’s own marijuana.
The jury concurred, returning a guilty verdict within 11 minutes.
Brian Thomas Borland, 68, appeared in Whangārei District Court on Thursday on three charges relating to cultivating and dealing cannabis over two properties in the Northland area on separate occasions.
Borland is no stranger to the courts, having been involved in the now-dissolved Daktory Social Smoking Clubs in New Lynn and Whangārei in the late 2000s.
In November 2022, police attempted to pull over a car in Dargaville when the driver pulled into a property in Bassett St.
When Senior Constable Wendy McDermott got out of her car to question the driver, she noticed Borland darting around the property, moving things behind the garage.
McDermott found eight cannabis plants in early germination and, when she asked Borland whose they were, he responded, “Mine.”
“Why are you growing cannabis?” she asked.
“Because it’s too expensive to buy and there’s no reason in the world people shouldn’t be able to use cannabis,” Borland responded.
He told McDermott: “I will continue to grow and consume cannabis no matter what.”
He was charged in connection with the 45 plants found at the site.
In January 2023, he set up a company named Roaring Lion Canna Enterprises, with himself as the sole director, alongside a Facebook page that began actively advertising the sale of cannabis and cannabis seeds.
A year after the Dargaville bust, and following an anonymous tipoff, police searched his latest residence in Totara North, where they found 52 plants and more than 600 grams of cannabis in various locations.
He was charged again, pleaded not guilty and represented himself at a jury trial before Judge Philip Rzepecky and a jury of 10 women and two men.
He opted not to deliver an opening address or present evidence. However, during his cross-examination of Far North detective Chris Renata, he asked if Renata could recall the 55g of cannabis found in his car being in a prescription container with his name on it. Renata could not recall.
An evidential interview was played in court in which Borland admitted his established trading on Facebook, claiming it was for clients with medicinal needs.
Borland said he had been in the cannabis trade for almost 50 years, had spent almost seven years in prison and had been before the courts 10 times for cannabis-related offending.
