A plainclothes policeman visited several legal-high sellers yesterday, and police said he found one central Dunedin dairy owner flouting the law.
The undercover officer was offered a choice from a box containing 200 unmarked plastic bags of cheap synthetic cannabis, Senior Sergeant Chris McLellan said.
Police declined to name the dairy, but said the owner was helpful and maintained he did not know he could not sell ''product in that format''. The dairy owner admitted to buying synthetic cannabis in bulk and then ''used primitive measuring techniques - a spoon - to measure out the quantity''.
He was unable to confirm where he sourced the product, which was packaged in clear resealable bags and sold for as little as $16 a packet at an estimated profit of at least $10 a bag.
''Information we received indicated he was fairly busy, and people liked the lower discounted price.''
The unknown product was immediately removed from shelves, as police were concerned ''the product may have contained a banned substance''.
''It is unbranded and people were being put at risk given that anything could have been in those products. [It] could have contained outdated or illegal substances or even something added to pack it out.''
The dairy owner would be formally interviewed and the incident referred to health officials for possible prosecution.
Police believed the incident was not an isolated case, and asked members of the public who had bought synthetic cannabis in a similar format to contact them.
