Case note: trafficking, possession and possessing things

The charges

Trafficking in a dangerous drug, possessing a dangerous drug, and possessing things used in connection with trafficking, being bags, a grinder, foil, scales and a mobile phone.

Trafficking is an offence under section 5 of the Drugs Misuse Act 1986 (Qld). Note that the maximum penalty for trafficking was increased to life imprisonment in 2023. At the time of this matter it was 20 years for a Schedule 2 drug. Anyone facing a trafficking charge today is facing the higher maximum.

The background

Police executed a search warrant at the client’s house and located a quantity of cannabis together with the items listed above.

The client had made full admissions in a record of interview before contacting a lawyer. That removed most of the available arguments about the charges themselves.

He had been advised elsewhere to plead quickly and told that an actual term of imprisonment was inevitable.

What was done

Where admissions have already been made, the work moves to sentence. The client wanted to change his circumstances, and the preparation was directed at demonstrating that to the court with evidence rather than assertion.

That meant engagement with treatment and support, a documented record of it over time, and material establishing the change in his personal circumstances by the time the matter was listed.

By sentence he had a new family, which made the difference between a custodial and a non-custodial outcome important to more than just him.

The result

He was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment, wholly suspended, and placed on probation for 2 years.

This turned on the particular facts, the extent and duration of the rehabilitation evidence, and the sentencing discretion exercised on the day. Every matter turns on its own facts, and nothing here suggests a similar outcome is available in another case.

The general point is narrower and worth making: talk to a lawyer before a record of interview, not after.