Mum allows teen son to smoke dope

A CAIRNS mum at her wits’ end over her teenage son’s out of control behaviour has been handed nine months probation for supplying him with cannabis in a bid to keep him at home.

The 45-year-old Whitfield woman, who is the wife of a prominent Cairns medical professional but cannot be identified to protect her son’s identity, pleaded guilty in the Cairns Supreme Court on Friday to supplying drugs to a minor, permitting use of place and drug possession.

The court heard she allowed her 15year-old son to smoke cannabis in the family home for about three months between October 31, 2019 and February 12, 2020.

The illicit behaviour was revealed when a picture of the boy smoking at home was circulated on social media and came to the attention of his school principal.

But her defence barrister Josh Trevino argued there was no “sinister motivation” behind her wrongdoing and she was just struggling with both her “oppositional, defiant and wayward son” along with her own mental health issues.

“By the end of 2019 the situation with her son was spiralling out of control,” she said.

“(But) the family have pulled together and it is unlikely the situation that occurred two years ago will happen again.

“(This was a) misguided attempt to keep her son safe.”

Mr Trevino said the mum had feared if the boy was left to his own devices he would start taking harder drugs and come into contact with criminals.

Justice Jim Henry also acknowledged the difficult position the woman was in.

“Parents with all their wits about them … not clouded by psychological issues, would struggle to know what to do,” he said.

Crown prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton told the court police raided the house on February 12 last year and located 13g of cannabis inside a tin in the woman’s bedroom, along with other drug paraphernalia. He said she told her son to be “discreet”, including keeping it out of sight of his father.