First time cannabis smoker caught drug driving
ACALL centre worker who tried smoking cannabis for the first time was later caught drug driving at nearly FOUR times the legal limit, a court heard.
Alex Mee was stopped by police on Haslingden Old Road in Rawtenstall at around 1am on July 4 and an officer could smell cannabis on his breath.
A blood test for cannabis showed a reading of 7.7 - the legal limit is two.
Prosecutor Tracey Yates told Burnley Magistrates Court that there were ‘no indications of bad driving’ and Mee was cooperative at the scene.
The 24-year-old pleaded guilty to drug driving and was disqualified for 12 months, fined £169 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.
Defence solicitor Philip Turner said the telecommunications worker is ‘embarrassed to be before the court’.
He told the magistrates: “[Mee] tells me that this was his first experience of smoking cannabis. He had not intended to and it wasn’t premeditated.
“He had gone to the house of a friend. He said a friend of a friend was there and he rolled some cannabis cigarettes and offered my client one.
“In the spur of the moment he decided to smoke what he considered to be a very small cigarette. He said others in the room were smoking and there was a lot of smoke.”
Mr Turner said Mee, of York Drive, Ramsbottom, was driving to another friend’s house half a mile away when police stopped his Vauxhall Astra at 1am.
He said: “This is the first time he has been before the court and the first time he has been arrested.
“He’s a man who has always been in work since leaving school. He works in telecommunications and has been with the same employer at a call centre for the past two years.
“He is embarrassed to be before the court. He is also in great fear because he has no idea what punishment might befall him.
“His parents are supportive. He feels very much that he has let them down.
“He lives in Ramsbottom but works in Radcliffe so he will now have to get to work by a bicycle or by way of public transport.
“Unfortunately he will not be able to avail himself of a rehabilitation course as there aren’t any for drug driving.”