Drug offence from ‘errand of mercy’

Press, 12 July 1985, Page 7

Drug offence from ‘errand of mercy’

An unemployed man was yesterday given a deferred sentence for what Mr Justice Holland in the High Court termed an errand of mercy in offering to supply two palfium tablets to a drug addict who was suffering withdrawal symptoms. The accused, John David Bryant, aged 28, was ordered to come up for sentence within two years if called upon on a charge of

offering to supply palfium, a class B controlled drug, on December 9 last year. He had pleaded guilty to the charge in the District Court and was committed to the High Court for sentence. Counsel (Mr S. C. Barker) said in mitigation of penalty that the accused was a friend from school days of the man to whom he offered to supply the tablets. This was done when he saw the man ill from drug-with-drawal symptoms. He offered to supply him with the tablets, which were painkiller tablets prescribed to the accused’s father. Mr Barker sought a sentence of non-residential periodic detention and said the accused had overcome a serious drug problem and had stayed out of trouble for a year, until this offence. His Honour said the offence was different from ordinary offences of supplying a drug. He said the man to whom the accused offered to supply the tablets

was a drug dealer and drug addict. He accepted that the accused saw his friend suffering drug-withdrawal symptoms, and stole his father’s prescribed pills to give to his friend as an errand of mercy. He knew his actions to be illegal. However, the accused had not supplied drugs to an innocent person. His Honour said he was impressed by a letter from the accused’s father, indicating that the accused was settling down, and the father was prepared to help him to “come right.” He also had a relationship with a responsible young woman. Notwithstanding the accused’s past record, he still was entitled to some consideration from the Court. His Honour said he was a little troubled at the accused’s attitude to life. He suggested that the accused apply his energies towards obtaining employment.