Oswestry magistrates in GHB drug help plea
Wednesday 2nd February 2011, 2:28PM GMT.
Oswestry magistrates have called upon the probation service to make sure help is available for offenders who have taken the drug GHB.
The call came after they heard the service could not help a 23-year-old man who had been struggling with a dependency on the drug.
Oswestry is recognised as having one of the highest uses of the class C drug in the country.
Yesterday magistrates fined Stephen Wayne Edwards, from Cabin Lane, £85 and ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge after he admitted possessing hydroxy-n-butyric.
Magistrates considered a community penalty but heard the probation service was unable to offer a testing programme for GHB.
Mr Roger Jones, magistrate, said: “It concerns us that there is nothing in place within the probation service to help people with this problem. It is a local issue but we would have hoped that the probation service could have helped.”
Miss Sara Beddow, prosecuting, said Edwards was arrested in the Castlefields, area of Oswestry on January 14.
“When officers arrived his behaviour was erratic, he was twitching and his eyes were bulging. He tried to run away but slipped and was arrested.”
Police found a mouthwash bottle on him that he said contained the liquid GHB.
The arrest came just three days after he had been fined for possessing the drug.
Mr Alun Williams for Edwards said his client had been taking the drug for some five or six years.
“When he began taking it for recreation it was not an illegal substance,” he said.
“A number of people have this dependency that has not been deemed illegal and my client has been fighting his dependency for some time.”
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After readinng the headline I thought:
“well that explains the sentencing!”
Only to find out that they were asking for help with offenders, not for themselves…
Oh well, the search for sense in the justice system continues…
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No sympathy from me I’m afraid. Nobody forces these idiots to use this substance so why should the taxpayer have to finance their treatment. Bang them up for 3 years, no access to drugs of any kind, and promise them 5 years next time they are caught.
If Oswestry is RECOGNISED as being a hot spot for drug abuse why are the police not tackling the problem, has nobody told them yet?
If there was a problem with speeding on the A5 no doubt the forces of law and order would soon stamp that out, speed traps, several cars used and quite a few officers. Priorities all wrong by the look of things.
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