Trial in Eisenstadt

Minors supplied with cannabis for years

Young people from southern Burgenland had an idea that was not at all ingenious: buy weed in Graz and sell it at home at a higher price. The dealers claim not to have known that they were also supplying minors.

The three young lads must once have been best friends. Yesterday it seemed as if one of them had to leave the circle. He denied until the end that he had anything to do with the sale of drugs and their distribution to minors - although this is said to have happened in his apartment. This third defendant (25) is also under investigation for theft in Styria ("I don't know anything about that"), his trial was adjourned. So we report on the actions of the other two, who pleaded guilty at Eisenstadt Regional Court.

Cannabis sold at a profit of 4 euros per gram 
Of course, they had always liked to pot themselves. How to finance the addiction? From 2021 to 2023, they traveled to Graz several times and bought a total of two kilos of cannabis from their trusted dealer. Average price per gram: 10 euros. "I don't remember who came up with the idea that we would then sell it on in Burgenland at a profit of 4 euros per gram," says the now 18-year-old unskilled worker who, like his unemployed buddy (21), lives in the south of the country. The former, represented in court by lawyer Martin Behal, amassed 4200 euros over the years, the other 3500.

"I don't ask them how old they are"
Both would have shared the purchased goods equally. "Everyone had their own customers," said the 21-year-old. He doesn't quite want to believe that they included minors. "I didn't know that. I don't ask them how old they are!"

The sentences handed down by Judge Gabriele Nemeskeri to the blameless men are final: six months on probation for the younger man and eight months for the 21-year-old. Plus: probation and drug therapy. It goes without saying that the two "made" a profit.