Cultivation of Narcotic Plants – Commercial Quantity
When someone cultivates or attempts to cultivate narcotic plants in a commercial quantity without being authorised to do so.
Sentencing
Sentencing in the higher courts
Please note that suspended sentences were abolished in the higher courts earlier than that of the Magistrates’ Court, and therefore all offences committed on or after 1 September 2013 will not have this available as a sentencing option.1
[1] Sentencing Advisory Council. Abolished Sentencing Orders, accessed January 19, 2021, https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/about-sentencing/abolished-sentencing-orders.
- A man grows 10 large marijuana plants in his basement
- A group of people set up a production plant in a factory and make ice
- A woman grows opium poppy flowers in her garden
- A scientist develops a genetically engineered yeast to make morphine for his friends
- The quantity of the drug cultivated was not a commercial quantity
Questions in cases like this
- What is the commercial quantity for the drug you are being charged with cultivating?
- Can they prove you were linked to the cultivation?
Maximum penalty and court that deals with this charge
The maximum penalty for Cultivation of Narcotic Plants – Commercial Quantity (s72A of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981) is level 2 imprisonment (25 years).
It is a very serious offence that will normally result in imprisonment being imposed by the County Court.
The section that covers this offence is section 72A of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981.
