Mum gave marijuana to her son

15-y-o smoked it at home

A TOOWOOMBA woman had supplied her 15-year-old son with marijuana because she believed it calmed him, a court has heard.

The 43-year-old woman, who is not named to protect the identity of her son who was a juvenile at the time, admitted to police her son regularly smoked marijuana in the family home.

Prosecutor Cameron Wilkins told Toowoomba Supreme Court it was accepted the woman hadn’t introduced her son to the drug but she knew he had used it since the age of 13.

A police search of the family home in July last year had turned up a small amount of marijuana and associated utensils.

However, police downloaded data from her son’s phone to find messages between mother and son relating to supplies of the drug.

The woman’s barrister Frank Martin told the court his client’s son was a big boy who had ADHD and other issues and had regularly assaulted his mother.

A reference from the woman’s daughter which was put before the court spoke of the boy’s violence toward their mother.

Mr Martin said his client found out her son started smoking marijuana at 13 and she had started smoking it a year later.

The teenager refused to take medication and his client believed the marijuana calmed him somewhat, Mr Martin submitted.

His client had since stopped using marijuana and had tested clean for drugs while her son was also off the drug, working and treating his mother in a better way, he said.

Mr Martin said his client had endured a difficult upbringing with both of her parents having been heroin addicts and she too had a two-year heroin habit before she had children.

The woman pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying marijuana to her son when he was 15 and one count of supplying him when he had turned 16 as well as associated offences.

Justice Peter Applegarth said supplying a minor with dangerous drugs was a very serious offence which brought a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment.

“Young adolescent, developing brains don’t need illicit drugs,” he warned the woman.

Justice Applegarth sentenced her to nine months in jail but ordered she be released immediately on parole.

❝Young adolescent, developing brains don’t need illicit drugs.

— Justice Peter Applegarth