A BULL rider turned to ice and ultimately supplying it to deal with depression after his best friend was made a quadraplegic, a court has heard.
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Clint James Glass’ unsophisticated and low-level drug supply operation unravelled when he caught the eye of police in Tamworth on February 14, 2017.
Glass “appeared to be nervous and agitated” so police searched the car, locating various amounts of ice in bags.
Valium, Stillnox, plastic spoons, cotton buds and other drug paraphernalia was uncovered.
Glass was flanked by family when he was sentenced in Tamworth District Court this week for supplying 5.49g of methylamphetamine.
The court heard Glass became the full-time carer of his friend after a rodeo accident left him in a wheelchair.
“Mr Glass found the experience to be challenging, depressing,” Judge Jeffery McLennan said.
To deal with his feelings, he commenced to use ice ... that use became a habit ... and began selling it to fund his habit.
- Judge Jeffery McLennan
“To deal with his feelings, he commenced to use ice.
“That use became a habit ... and began selling it to fund his habit.”
While the car cop stop was a random incident, a secret police operation, code-named Strike Force Delaney, was set-up in the weeks prior to investigate the supply of drugs in the rodeo scene in Tamworth, and further afield.
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That operation, by Oxley police, has seen several people charged with drug supply, including Glass’ friend. They remain before the courts.
Glass initially decided to take the case to trial but pleaded guilty in May. Judge McClennan said the drug supply was at the “very bottom of the range”.
“It was at a very low-level [of sophistication],” he told the court.
Glass admitted to the court he had been “supplying the drug for sometime prior” but Judge McLennan found Glass was remorseful and “a young man, who in my view, regrets his involvement in this particular episode”.
He said Glass hadn’t “necessarily perhaps understood” the effect “that his depression ... had caused him”.
Glass, the court was told, hasn’t used ice since his arrest and had been accepted into rehab as he attempted to get his life back on track.
“The best protection the community can have is from a reformed offender who will not re-offend,” Judge McLennan said, handing Glass an 18-month suspended jail sentence for supply, with other charges taken into account.
“You're being given a chance, take it with both hands and don't come back.”