While 35-year-old Jackson Browne resiled from the comments he made to a Probation officer before yesterday’s Dunedin District Court sentencing, Judge David Robinson said it was “troubling”.
The defendant’s problems were relatively small to begin with.
He was pulled over by police on March 31 while driving in East Taieri and rather than admit being disqualified, he gave his brother’s details.
The next day his situation became more serious.
Police executed a search warrant at Browne’s Milton home while he was out.
They found three potted cannabis plants at the back of the property and much more inside a garage.
Hanging from the roof was a bag containing 270g of leaf material, enough, the police said, to make 540 joints.
“However it is common practice for low-quality cannabis of this nature to be manufactured into cannabis oil,” a court summary said.
A further search turned up thousands of cannabis seeds and a glass methamphetamine pipe that appeared to have been recently used.
Hidden inside a canvas tent-pole bag was also a sawn-off 20-gauge semi-automatic shotgun which had a torch attached to its shortened barrel, along with eight shells.
Browne appeared in court on a range of charges and was granted bail on strict conditions, which included a residential curfew and a ban on possessing drugs or firearms. But within days he was offending again.
When police discovered Browne had left his Milton bail address, they found him living in Mosgiel.
A search of the room in which he was sleeping yielded almost identical results to the one officers executed just three weeks earlier.
Under the defendant’s bed they found a sawn-off shotgun, together with two rounds of ammunition, and there was also 215g of cannabis divided between 13 snaplock bags.
Browne also had three meth pipes and small bags that had contained the class-A drugs.
Judge Robinson had a strong message for what the future held should he resume such a lifestyle on release.
“You continuing to use any substances is going to keep you effectively on a cycle — you use substances, it brings you back before the court. The sentences just get longer and longer,” he said.
Browne said he wanted to attend Moana House residential rehabilitation but the judge said he had question marks about the legitimacy of that claim.
A cultural report which charted the defendant’s background explained clearly how he ended up before the court, said Judge Robinson.
“Your upbringing was nothing short of appalling.
‘‘You grew up in a household where illicit drug use was normalised,” he said.
Browne was jailed for 19 months and was denied leave to have that converted to home detention.
“My plea to you is to take advantage of the time you have detoxing and commit to rehabilitation,” the judge said.
“It’s not easy but your life becomes a lot more worthwhile when you’re not addicted to substances ... free from the daily battle of trying to find the next hit.”
