February 02, 2010

Young heroin addict refused home detention

Any prospect of home detention has been ruled out for a 20-year-old heroin addict.

Jackson Manson had been making “homebake” at his home in Kuaka Street using morphine sulphate tablets and the chemical acetic anhydride.

“Where you have been dealing from home and manufacturing at home, home detention is not appropriate,” said Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen Erber.

Manson, unemployed, pleaded guilty to charges of possession of morphine, possession of drug making equipment, and dealing in heroin.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Ross Unwin said Manson made a break over the side fence when the police arrived at his house.

They established from the gear found at the house that he had been manufacturing the drug, and his text messages showed that he had been dealing the drug two or three times a week.

When he was caught he admitted the dealing but would not say how he had been obtaining the morphine sulphate tablets he was using. He described himself as a heroin addict.

Defence counsel Serina Bailey said he was selling some of the drugs solely to support his own heroin habit.

Judge Erber remanded Manson in custody, saying a prison sentence was inevitable for such serious offending in offering to supply one of the most pernicious of the illegal drugs being used.

He ordered a pre-sentence report for a crown sentencing session on April 30.