Woman says she deals meth to ’get by’

A cleaner in Blenheim caught dealing methamphetamine says she was doing it to help her pay the bills.

Janelle Harata Love Robb, 40, was text messaging eight different numbers, offering to sell ‘‘clean and dry and nice’’ meth, several times a month between January 14 and June 8.

She would offer to sell ‘‘cuties’’ or quarter grams for up to $250, ‘‘half yards’’ or half grams for up to $350, and a gram for up to $650, a police summary of facts said.

On one occasion she sent a message offering meth but warned she had to put her prices up by $50, the police summary said.

Police raided her house on Leitrim St in Blenheim on June 18. They found a glass pipe and

4.5g of meth in her bedroom, separated into eight plastic bags.

In explanation, Robb told police she had planned to sell the meth, saying it was to help her pay the bills and ‘‘get by’’.

When she appeared at the Blenheim District Court on Monday, Robb pleaded guilty to a representative charge of offering to supply meth, one charge of possessing meth for supply, and one charge of possessing a drug utensil.

Her lawyer Marcus Zintl asked for Robb’s curfew to be lifted, saying she had a medical condition and two children, and sometimes had to go to the hospital late at night.

Police opposed the lifting of the curfew.

Judge Tony Zohrab ordered a presentencing report and a cultural report, and remanded Robb on bail to February 12 for sentencing, with her curfew to continue until that date.