First court case for former ‘legal high’
Friday 19th March 2010, 2:29PM GMT.
GUERNSEY’S first court case concerning the importation of a former ‘legal high’ has resulted in community service for the offender.
In the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Huw Bisson, 21, admitted ordering two amounts of 4-methylmethcathinone, known as mephedrone, which is not yet illegal in the UK, through the post.
The Aotearoa, Rue des Marais, St Peter’s, resident was spared a prison sentence because of extenuating circumstances, his full cooperation and the fact he was considered of otherwise exemplary character.
Prosecuting Advocate Liam Roffey told the court that Bisson ordered nearly 10 grams of the substance from a website and had it sent to a friend’s house in the UK, who concealed it in a small sachet of coffee, put that inside a computer game cartridge then posted it to Guernsey.
When this was detected by Customs on 24 November and Bisson was questioned he admitted the offence and volunteered that he had also imported the drug once before, a few days previously.
Defence advocate Andrew Ayres told the court his client had used the drug legally while at university and pointed out that it could not be considered in the same legal bracket as class A, B, or C substances.
Judge Philip Robey sentenced Bisson to complete 100 hours of community service as an alternative to prison. He explained that he would be unlikely to pass such a sentence again but this was the first case of its sort.
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Unlucky Huw, you have become the Scapegoat. They were bound to prosecute someone at some point, to set an example.
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Unlucky Huw. I wonder what’s going to happen to the person who (according to the BBC) imported £30K’s worth?
Or maybe they made the whole thing up?
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For a person who thought it was legal this 21 year old would-be teacher seemed to take extraordinary steps to hide this import
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Channel TV have reported that he was told by a customs officer that he would not be prosecuted, but the substance would be confiscated.
If Mr Bisson was told in interview or by a customs officer that he would not be prosecuted then he should not have been. I would like to see one of the Royal Court Advocates, and perhaps the best would be Peter Ferbrache get this conviction overturned and let him still have his chance of becoming a teacher
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Good job he was not caught with a few grams of cannibis or he would have gone to prison. Unlike cannibis kids are dying in the UK using methylmethcathinone and a prison sentence would have sent a warning to other fools who use it.
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Ray
Good point.
He knew what he was doing and got caught, tough.
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Neil, do you drink? People die from drinking every year, much more than die from taking mephedrone.
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not like it should be illegal anyway…..
i wonder how much *real* class A gets through whilst customs are bumbling with alternatives…
well nevermind as long as fretful mothers and close minded fools are apeased, everything is ok….
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Drugs policy is an absolute farce. Period.
The authorities are a joke, they haven’t won for a single minute of a single day of a single decade on “The War on Drugs”. They have been anialated every year. There isn’t a single high security prison in the UK free of drugs. That’s how inept the authorities are at policing this biggotry and that’s how massive is the slaughter.
People do what they want. If biggots ban it it makes no difference whatsoever, they’re just waisting everybodies time and money enforcing what is uninforceable.
Meanwhile Spain, Portugal et al have legalised carrying drugs and the policy is a big success. Namely they’ve taken the criminal (biggotry) element out and drug use has declined by about 1-2%.
Far too broad minded a policy for the old farts of Guernsey’s failed, falling apart and shambolic establishment
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Johnny B
Care to pass on your thoughts to the parents of the two guys poisoned in the UK last week ?
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Ray, I think you’ll find the two chaps died last week because they foolishly consumed Methadone (the heroin substitute) after a day of drinking and taking mephedrone. Alcohol and Methadone is a lethal combination, and it is highly likely that the mephedrone had nothing to do with their deaths.
Unfortunately the UK press has (as usual) acted without any real regard for facts or the truth. The Sun even stated that “evil pushers” were adding heroin to mpehedrone to get people hooked! What an absolute load of rubbish!
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Nat
You might as well be saying it’s OK to drive up Fountain Street at 90MPH .. as long as you’re careful
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I’m not saying that at all. Perhaps you could elaborate on how you draw that similarity? I am struggling to see what driving up Fountain Street has to do with your comment to Johnny B?
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Nat
Let’s see if I can elaborate on the similarity …
90MPH up Fountain Street… Dangerous ?
Stuffing your body with pills,powders and other concoctions of unknown quality from some slimeball supplier in a back alley ..Dangerous?
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Ray, how do you know the pills and powders are dangerous? Research has been pretty limited, so one can not make judgement either way.
It’s highly possible that mephedrone is dangerous. Yet that shouldn’t be the sole reason it’s banned. If we use your example, should driving be banned just becuase 90mph in Fountain Street is dangerous?
Plus, you’ve not really appreciated that my original post was to point out that those two kids who died didn’t die from mephedrone.
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Ray
Personally I see nothing wrong in driving up Fountain Street at 90 mph whilst under the influence of whatever substance happens to be available at the time.
Life’s for living isn’t it? Live fast die young!! Crash and burn baby, crash and burn!!
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