Man sold Mamba to buy heroin for back pain after his life ‘spiralled downhill’
year’s Ride Remembrance will be setting on October 14 A CONSTRUCTION worker from Derby started dealing drugs to fund a heroin addiction he developed trying to cope with back pain.
Derby Crown Court heard that David Davies, of Chaddesden, “injured his back very badly” in an accident at work in 2016. The 35-year-old was prescribed strong pain killers to treat the symptoms but, when they ran out, he began taking heroin.
Then, while selling drugs to fund his reliance on the class A drug, he was snared as part of a police operation set up to tackle the city’s problem with Mamba, a powerful synthetic form of cannabis.
David Outterside, mitigating, said: “There is a sad past as to how he comes before the court.
“His offending starts relatively young, after he left home at 14.
“But, at the age of 26, he found work in the construction industry and, between 2008 and 2017, there is virtually no offending.
“But, in 2016, an accident on a construction site injured his back very badly and he became dependent on prescribed painkillers. The doctor then stopped prescribing them and, from that point, his life spiralled downhill. He started taking heroin and the offending this year relates to that addiction.”
Sarah Slater, prosecuting, said Davies sold Mamba to an undercover police officer on three occasions outside the Padley Centre, in Becket Street, during a two-week period in January and February this year. On each occasion he sold £10 deals of the class B drug to the female officer who was posing as a user.
Miss Slater said: “This is all part of Operation Halifax and Operation Duchess which were set up to tackle the issue of what is colloquially named Mamba being sold openly in the streets of Derby city centre. A number of defendants have already been dealt with as part of these operations and most have received custodial sentences.”
After his arrest in June, Davies pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying the class B drug.
Judge Jonathan Bennett jailed him for nine months and handed him a five-year criminal behaviour order which bans him from being on certain named streets in the city centre, all of which are around the Intu Centre.
He said: “The operation was set up in response to concerns of people and shopkeepers in relation to the use of Mamba.
“You don’t need me to tell you what a scourge it is, not just in Derby but in other cities where users walk around like zombies after taking it.
“It is distressing for other people to see people walking around like that.”