Use/self administer a prohibited drug

If you agree that you have committed the offence and the police are able to prove all the elements of the offence, it is best to plead guilty at an early opportunity to receive the maximum discount. Currently the maximum discount available for an early plea of guilty is 25% of the sentence.

Furthermore, the early guilty plea shows the Court that you have remorse and contrition for your actions.

Our lawyers at National Criminal Lawyers work closely with you to ensure that we obtain all necessary paper work at increasing the chances of obtaining a non-conviction or section 10.

Possess prohibited drug can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 2 years. This is the same as the offence of possess prohibited drug.

Please note that the penalties mentioned are reserved for the worse case offending and are unlikely to be the penalty you receive.

If you decide to plead not guilty you will need to prepare to go to a Defended Hearing.

A Defended Hearing is where all the witnesses of that case are called to give evidence. The witnesses are both examined by the prosecution and tested by your defence lawyers.

National Criminal Lawyers have defended thousands of people charged with cultivate and are experts at these hearings.

Some of the possible defences available for those charged with self-administer prohibited drug can include:

• • To argue that you were not administering or attempting to administer the substance to yourself (although, it is still an offence to be in possession of a prohibited drug, or to administer or attempt to administer a drug to someone else);
  • To argue that the substance was not a prohibited drug;
  • To show that you have a lawfully obtained script for the drug; or
    • If you were compelled to act in a certain way due to the circumstances, or the threats of another you may be able to argue “Duress”;
    • If your actions were necessary to prevent a greater harm from occurring, you may have the defence of “Necessity”.

The Courts are not bound by statistics however there must be reasonable consistency in sentences. A Magistrate or Judge should have regard to what has been done in other cases. In Green [2011] HCA 45, the plurity judgement of French CJ, Kiefel and Creennan JJ stated:

“Equal Justice” embodies the norm expressed in the terms “equality before the law”. It is an aspect of the rule of law.

For self- administer prohibited drug 60% of offenders received a fine.

In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties for a supply prohibited drug charge.

• • • • Prison sentence
      • Home Detention
      • Intensive correction order (previously periodic detention)
      • Suspended sentence
      • Community service order (CSO)
      • Good behaviour bond
      • Fine
      • Section 10

However, from 24 September 2018 new penalty’s will be replacing the above. They are as follows:

• • • • Full time Imprisonment
      • New ICO (ICO) with a home detention condition available
      • New Community Correction Order (CCO)
      • Fine
      • New Conditional release Order (CRO)

Our client’s car was parked outside Panthers in Penrith when police officers pulled up near his car and conducted a stop and check believing that they had the power to do so. Police alleged he swallowed a prohibited drug before they were able to search his vehicle. The search found only a satchel but no amount of drugs. He was arrested and charged with self-administer a prohibited drug. Our senior lawyers argued that the police acted outside their lawful powers and could not establish the charge. These arguments were successful. The charges against our client were dismissed.

Another client was found injecting a prohibited drug at a music festival. He pleaded guilty to use prohibited drug. In the preparation of his sentencing case we are gathering character references and tendered a letter of apology. The outcome was a section 10 no conviction recorded on the condition that he enter a good behaviour bond.