under lights?

[racingsnake]

Hello All

 

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know the 'current' penalty for plants under lights in WA? Numbers and weights of shit would be good too.

I have looked on several sites but no success.

Thanks

[jimbojones5678]

I believe this is current, but don't quote me...

 

The penalty for having one plant is $300. The fine has gone up from $150 in 2002 to the current $300. I note also that the regulations that doubled the expiation fee for one plant also doubled or even tripled the fees for other personal possession offences for cannabis, cannabis resin, for the smoking of cannabis, and for having equipment for the smoking of cannabis.

 

Under the legislation, if a person has more than one plant, the offence is not expiable, which means a court appearance. Section 32(6) of the Controlled Substances Act is quite specific. It states:

(6) Where a person is found guilty of an offence involving cultivation of not more than the prescribed number of cannabis plants and the court is satisfied that the person cultivated the plants solely for his or her own smoking or consumption, the person is liable only to a penalty not exceeding $500.

The crucial words are `prescribed number of cannabis plants', and the regulations that support the act in turn specify that the prescribed number of cannabis plants is 10.

 

In comparison, Victoria defines a trafficable offence as a person having 10 or more plants, while in Tasmania it is softer than that, with the bar set at 20. Western Australia sets 10 plants as the point at which the presumption is that the person is a supplier. New South Wales, the Northern Territory and the ACT are tougher in this regard, with five being the magic number for New South Wales and the Northern Territory, while in the ACT it is one plant if the cultivation is artificial and three if it is natural (whatever that might mean).

 

So, in terms of the numbers of plants, it seems to me that South Australia is on par with Victoria and Western Australia, twice as tough as Tasmania, half as tough as New South Wales and the Northern Territory, and only 5 per cent to 10 per cent as tough as the ACT.

 

The real difference appears to be in relation to what the penalty is when the defined number of plants is reached. In New South Wales an offender could be fined up to $2 200 and/or imprisoned for up to two years; for Victoria it is $2 150 and/or up to one year in prison; for Western Australia it is up to $2 000 and/or imprisonment for up to two years; for Tasmania it is a fine of up to $5 000; for the Northern Territory it is a similar amount, but also including an option of imprisonment for up to two years; and for the ACT the fine is up to $2 000 and/or two years in prison. I have not included Queensland in that because it does not quite compare apples with apples and simply refers to an `aggregate weight of more than 500 grams' rather than the number of plants and it does have an extreme penalty of up to 15 years' imprisonment.

 

Here's the source link...

 

Hope that helps.

 

Jimbo

[Luke Skywalker]

Fairly sure that any number of plants under lights falls outside expiation scheme too.

 

But still, you're far less likely to get what they could throw at ya. Just be careful what you keep around.

[Luke Skywalker]

And the early part of that, the bit with the legislation, is from S.A., not W.A., although it does go through WA's law in brief.