Cannabis advocate Brian Borland asks jury to find him guilty

A prominent cannabis advocate on trial after police discovered two grow sites and nearly 100 plants made things easier for the jury in his closing speech.

“They have no choice but to plead guilty,” he said, arguing that his case centered on the ethics of growing one’s own marijuana.

The jury agreed and returned a guilty verdict in 11 minutes.

Brian Thomas Borland, 68, appeared in the Whangārei District Court on Thursday on three charges relating to the cultivation and trafficking of cannabis at two properties in the Northland area on separate occasions.

Borland is no stranger to the courts, having been involved in the now-disbanded Daktory Social Smoking Clubs in New Lynn and Whangārei in the late 2000s.

In November 2022, police attempted to stop a car in Dargaville when the driver entered a property on Bassett St.

When Senior Constable Wendy McDermott got out of her car to question the driver, she noticed Borland running around the property, moving things behind the garage.

McDermott found eight early-germinating cannabis plants, and when he asked Borland whose they were, he replied, “Mine.”

“Why do you grow cannabis?” he asked.

“Because it’s too expensive to buy and there’s no reason in the world why people shouldn’t be able to consume cannabis,” Borland said.

He told McDermott: “I will continue to grow and consume cannabis no matter what.”

He was charged in connection with the 45 plants found at the site.

In January 2023, he created a company called Roaring Lion Canna Enterprises, with himself as the sole director, along with a Facebook page that began actively advertising the sale of cannabis and cannabis seeds.

A year after the Dargaville raid, and following an anonymous tip-off, police raided his last residence in Totara North, where they found 52 plants and more than 600 grams of cannabis in various locations.

He was charged again, pleaded not guilty and represented himself at a jury trial before Judge Philip Rzepecky and a jury of 10 women and two men.

He chose not to make an opening statement or present evidence. However, during questioning Far North Detective Chris Renata, he asked if Renata remembered that the 55 grams of cannabis found in her car were in a prescription bottle with her name on it. Renata did not remember.

An evidentiary interview was presented in court in which Borland admitted his established business activity on Facebook, claiming it was for clients with medicinal needs.

Borland said he had been in the cannabis trade for almost 50 years, had spent almost seven years in prison and had been before the courts 10 times for cannabis-related offences.

He told Renata in the interview that he had set up a legitimate cannabis trading business on which he intended to pay GST and taxes and that he was building up reserves to sell.

He said he could not estimate the financial return from the crop, noting that revenue had dropped significantly due to the abundance of cannabis on the local market.

“The entire cycle is four months before anything is harvested, and the crop is worthless until it gets to that four-month stage. That’s the only time cannabis has any value, these (plants) have no monetary value,” Borland told the detective.

Crown attorney Pablo Hambler told the jury at the end of the trial that there was no doubt the elements of the offence had been met.

“You may sympathize with his position, but this is not a case of what the law should be or what Borland would like it to be. The law against growing and selling to other people is illegal.”

Borland used his closing statements to explain that he had no choice but to plead not guilty, which would allow him to voice his opposition to cannabis laws.

“Not all of our laws are fair and the judiciary has a moral and ethical obligation to ensure that the laws they enforce are fair and equitable. Cannabis laws are not fair and all they are doing is protecting medical companies that are selling an inferior product,” he told the jury.

She then told them about her experience buying prescription drugs “no questions asked” and that she was fighting for all New Zealanders.

“Everyone should have the right to grow their own cannabis if they want to.

“I don’t know what else they can do except find me guilty, but the laws need to be changed and the reason I took these actions was simply to defy the law.”

The jury returned within 11 minutes with a guilty verdict, and as sentencing options were being discussed, he told the judge he had one request.

“It’s jail or nothing.”

Judge Rzepecky replied: “I realise you are taking a moral stance, but you are not a young man, you are even older than me, and it is not easy to go to prison. It seems like a wasted life, but it is entirely up to you, you seem to be making a martyr of yourself.”

“I just have to do what I have to do,” Borland said.

“Okay, that’s how you see it,” Judge Rzpecky said.

Borland will be sentenced at a later date.

This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.