Pubdate: Fri, 14 Dec 2001
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Rod McGuirk

MAN CAUGHT WITH DRUG THE DAY IT IS OUTLAWED

A Darwin man who was caught with the anaesthetic ketamine on the day the 
Northern Territory parliament outlawed it as a dangerous drug was sentenced 
today to two years' jail.

Ketamine mixed with amphetamine is a relatively new hallucinogenic party 
drug known as KitKat and Special K.

The parliament added ketamine to Schedule Two drugs on December 14 last 
year - the day police raided Emmanuel Iraklis Hatzigeorgiou's unit in 
suburban Nightcliff.

Hatizigeorgiou, 24, was sentenced in the NT Supreme Court today after 
pleading guilty to possessing a commercial quantity of ketamine (13.4g) and 
a trafficable quantity of methylamphetamine (3.4g), or speed.

Defence counsel Phil Cantrill said the Territory designation of 0.1g as a 
commercial quantity of ketamine was barely a dose.

It was extraordinarily low compared with amounts set in other States, Mr 
Cantrill said.

Including ketamine as a Schedule Two drug was a mistake since a similar 
drug PCP - also known as Angel Dust - was categorised as a less dangerous 
Schedule One drug, he said.

Justice David Angel described the different categories for ketamine and PCP 
as remarkable and incongruous.

But he did not accept that it was an error.

Justice Angel accepted that the quantity of ketamine Hatizigeorgiou had was 
for personal use.

But the judge rejected his submission that he thought the ketamine was 
amphetamine.

Justice Angel sentenced Hatizigeorgiou to 18 months for the ketamine and 
six months for the amphetamine.

The sentence is suspended after serving three months.

The judge accepted that ketamine was legal in some states and illegal in others.
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