Probation with drug testing for 21-y-o man

A 21-YEAR-OLD man found with a large amount of cannabis has been placed on probation to include random drug testing to help get him off the habit.

Police attending a Highfields residence on October 25, last year, found three people in the garage including Byron Jasper Leigh Howard.

Police found three clip seal bags of green leafy material which Howard said was cannabis and that it was his, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

Total amount of cannabis was 350.3g, the court heard.

Another clip seal bag was found to contain a crystalline substance which was analysed as MDMA (ecstasy) and weighed a total 11.6g, the court heard.

Howard pleaded guilty to possessing a dangerous drug arising from that incident as well as to trespassing and wilful damage arising from an incident where he walked into a Rockville residence and damaged a steel stand causing $535 worth of damage.

Asked what he was doing there, the then 20-year-old had said he was looking for a friend and had gone to the wrong address, the court heard.

His barrister Shane MacDonald

told the court his client was so intoxicated at the time of the Rockville incident that he had no memory of it.

His client had started smoking cannabis at age 14 and had moved on to MDMA by 18, he said.

His client had a co-accused in relation to the drug matters and that friend had been placed on two years probation and Mr MacDonald asked that his client be offered a similar penalty.

Taking into account his young age and lack of criminal history, Acting Magistrate Lisa O’Neill placed Howard on two years probation with no conviction recorded and ordered he pay $535 restitution.