(1) Except pursuant to a licence under this Act, or as otherwise permitted by regulations made under this Act, no person shall cultivate any prohibited plant.
(2) Subject to subsection (4), every person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence against this Act and is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years.
(3) Notwithstanding anything in section 7 of the Summary Proceedings Act 1957, where any person is summarily convicted of an offence against this section, the District Court may sentence him to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to both.
(4) It shall be a defence to a charge under subsection (1) if the person charged proves that the prohibited plant to which the charge relates was of the species Papaver somniferum, and that it was not intended to be a source of any controlled drug or that it was not being developed as a strain from which a controlled drug could be produced.
Compare: 1965 No 45 s 5(1)(c), (2), (5)
Section 9(3): amended, on 1 April 1980, pursuant to section 18(2) of the District Courts Amendment Act 1979 (1979 No 125).