From $60,000 a year to a burden on the taxpayer
Regular cannabis user Kyle Denning, 36, has been living in fear of police ever since he saw friends get busted with a “tinny each” of cannabis when he was 18.
“Many years later I was a member of Auckland Daktory and got pulled over leaving the club, and got a warning for my grinder after my car was searched.”
To avoid going through a supplier, he decided to grow his own but that backfired when police visited his West Auckland property in 2017 for an unrelated reason.
“They obviously smelt something, and it was like Christmas time for them going into my garage,” Denning said.
They found 39 plants — half of them flowering — which Denning said were only for his and his exwife’s use.
He was convicted of growing cannabis and sentenced to three months’ community detention, 150 hours of community service and 12 months of intensive supervision.
“That was my IT career. I had worked as a senior desktop engineer for 15 years. Nobody wanted me because of my conviction.”
He said he is among the 80 per cent of cannabis users who haven’t had any harmful health effects.
“The most harmful effect it’s had on my life is the criminal side of things. I just feel like my talents have just gone to waste. I went from $60,000 a year to a benefit — a burden on the taxpayer rather than contributing. It turned my life upside down.
“It stops me from travelling overseas. It stops me from applying for jobs I want.
“I spent three years trying to find work before deciding I had to try something different. Now I’m an apprentice builder.”
He said he used cannabis mostly for medicinal reasons, but the current law around medicinal use doesn’t accommodate what he uses it for.
“It stops my recurrence of migraines, it helps my chronic back pain and my insomnia.
“We’re all rooting for it to be legal recreationally because it means people will be able to use it medicinally without having to go through all the red tape with the doctor.”
He said he missed his IT work but accepts the consequences of his actions.
“I chose to break the law knowing it was illegal. I made the choice and nobody else did that for me. I own this and have moved on with my life.”