NZ cannabis club using vending machine to sell drug

Wellington, March 22 (ANI): New Zealand's first cannabis club has installed a vending machine to dispense the drug.

The club, the Daktory in the West Auckland suburb of New Lynn, has been using the machine - which sells one gram bags of cannabis for 20 dollars - to avoid any of their members being charged with dealing the Class C drug.

The hired vending machine is a standard dispenser but has been filled with cannabis rather than confectionery or toys, according to Stuff.co.nz.

The Daktory was opened in November 2008 and boasted a membership of several thousand before its founder Dakta Green was jailed for eight months for possessing, selling and for allowing the Delta Ave warehouse to be used for drug taking in June 2011.

The Solicitor-General later appealed the 61-year-old's sentence and it was more than doubled to 23 months.

Following Green's sentencing the Daktory announced it was closing its doors to the public and would be used as the headquarters for the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml).

But Norml president Julian Crawford confirmed the club was again open for business from Wednesday to Sunday.

Crawford said the vending machine had been a hit with guests with ''a few hundred sales'' taking place on busy nights.

''It has been very popular, quite a few people come here," he stated.

Crawford said the vending machine was ''an example of how things could be'' if cannabis was legalised.

Waitemata police said the club was being monitored as part of "normal routine policing".

Dakta Green, who changed his name from Ken Morgan in 2008, is expected to be released from jail in June and Crawford said he would return to the Daktory and cannabis activism. (ANI)