Warwick drug trafficker jailed

Two months in custody a positive stay for 21-year-old

A WARWICK man who resorted to trafficking drugs to support his own habit was a typical example of how a drug-addicted person’s world can collapse, a Toowoomba court has heard.

Due to his methylamphetamine addiction, Jake William Dwan had lost his job, his girlfriend and ended up in jail, his barrister Jeff Hunter SC told Toowoomba Supreme Court.

Mr Hunter said the now 21-year-old had started using marijuana at age 13 and progressed to methylamphetamine (ice) but had stopped using drugs by age 16.

However, he had been reintroduced to drugs by friends at age 19 and by the time he was charged with trafficking last year he was using methylamphetamine daily, Mr Hunter said.

Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso said Dwan had been charged with trafficking in ice, ecstasy and marijuana in the Warwick area over a six-week period between June 12 and July 26 last year.

A police search of his home in July last year had found an amount of crystaline substance which was found to have a methylamphetamine purity of 9.464g, 80g of marijuana and $2575 cash which the Crown claimed were proceeds of drug sales, she said.

Of further concern was that, though Dwan had stopped using drugs after his arrest, he had returned to ice use in January this year and had been charged with four further counts of supplying the drug to others in January and April, Ms Kelso submitted.

Mr Hunter said though his client had been caught offending while on bail, it had turned out to be a positive thing as his client had spent two months in custody during which time he had weaned himself off drugs and was now much healthier.

When he went into custody his client weighed less than 70kg but now was over 80kg and three drugs tests done since his release from prison had been clean, Mr Hunter said.

The trafficking offence was prosecuted on his client’s own admissions to police without which he would have been charged with a lesser offence, he submitted.

Justice Martin Burns told Dwan getting away from ice addiction was a difficult proposition.

“I accept you are on the path to rehabilitation but Mr Dwan you have a long way to go,” His Honour told him.

“Trafficking in methylamphetamine is a very serious offence. That substance being peddled in the community causes a great deal of suffering.”

Justice Burns sentenced Dwan to three years in jail but ordered he be released on parole immediately.