A 19-year-old woman ''seemed to think it's OK for you to peddle your drug of choice to other young people'' Judge Stephen Coyle said as he sentenced her to three months' jail yesterday.
Ruby Courtney Crichton, of Cromwell, appeared in the Alexandra District Court on two drug-related charges, including one of supplying cannabis to a person under 18, on July 12, at Cromwell. Counsel Russell Checketts said the defendant knew the youth and ''foolishly agreed'' to sell him cannabis when he contacted her.
Police did not find any cannabis in her house and a notebook they found containing a list of names was merely a list of people who owed her money for ''bits and pieces'' among the personal effects she sold when she was shifting house, Mr Checketts said. There was no other communication about cannabis in ''about 50 pages'' of texts police recorded from Crichton's cellphone.
Judge Coyle said resealable plastic zipper storage bags and tinfoil cut into pieces were found by police during the search - ''the only explanation for the bags and the tinfoil can be they were clearly intended to be used by you for selling cannabis''. He rejected the suggestion the notebook was a record of who owed her money for other items they had bought off her.
''I don't accept that, given the other paraphernalia around your place, in particular the tinfoil and ziplock bags.''
The notebook was a standard way of drug dealers keeping tabs on their deals, he said. Crichton said she did not smoke cannabis now, and used only legal highs.
''This court sees all too frequently people whose lives are destroyed by drugs and by legal highs,'' Judge Coyle said.
Her offending was clearly aggravated by the fact she sold cannabis to a youth and Judge Coyle was ''enormously'' concerned she did not seem to think there was anything wrong with selling drugs.
''I need to impose a sentence which will sheet home to you the seriousness of your offending. It is clear from the other paraphernalia that activity was not the first time you'd engaged in selling cannabis,'' he said.
The defendant was a first offender but could not find a suitable address for an electronic-based sentence, so the only alternative was jail. For possessing three bongs and two cannabis pipes, on August 1 at Cromwell, Crichton was convicted and discharged.
