A MAN who said he smoked 200 cones of marijuana a day was an example why the drug should not be made legal, according to the magistrate, Bruce Williams.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In Orange Local Court on Thursday, 24-year-old Phillip Bradley Barker’s solicitor Philip Boncardo suggested Mr Williams should show his client leniency for threatening a shop assistant and smashing a window because he had gone to great lengths to address his drug abuse.
“He has gone from 200 cones per day to 10 cones per week,” Mr Boncardo said.
Barker was charged with destroying property and intimidating a person with the intent to cause fear, over an incident that occurred March 10.
Police facts said Barker walked into an auto shop and became agitated when the female shop assistant said she could not provide a full refund for the item he had purchased, but instead offered store credit.
He began to yell at her, swear at her and call her derogatory names.
Eventually he threatened to come back and steal items from the shop.
Police said she became fearful and offered Barker a full refund, but by that time he was not interested.
He left the store, but upon realising he had left his receipt inside, he tried to put his fist through the window and broke it.
Mr Williams said the amount of marijuana the Spring Hill resident smoked was staggering.
He said he could not work out when society had changed from a time where 13- or 14-year-old children ran around playing football in the sun, to a time when they sat around smoking cannabis and “frying their brains”.
“How on earth you could smoke 200 cones in a day I have no idea,” he told Barker.
Mr Boncardo said Barker had enrolled in and completed a Magistrate’s Early referral Into Treatment program and had a limited capacity to pay a fine because he was unemployed.
Mr Williams sentenced Barker to a good behaviour bond for 12 months and fined him $200.
He reprimanded him for becoming angry simply because he could not get his own way.
“I don’t know where you get that sense of entitlement,” Mr Williams said.
But he congratualted him on his rehabilitation efforts.
“Isn’t it much better to be out on a day like today with your head clear?” he asked.