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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Mother jailed for smuggling drugs to son
The Courier
Tuesday 16 Jan 2007 A Lillington mother who tried to smuggle cannabis to her son while he was serving time for robbery in a young offenders' institution has joined him behind bars. Pauline Johnstone, 45, of Hanworth Close, Lillington, was spotted by guards at Onley Young Offenders Institution, near Daventry, on September 24 as she tried to pass a package to her son Thomas. Northampton Crown Court heard how he was serving a four-year sentence at the time for robbery. Rebecca Wade, prosecuting, said Johnstone was sitting talking to her son when she was seen to put her hand on the table with her palm facing down as he removed something from it. Once the alarm had been raised, 26 grams of cannabis were found hidden in his boxer shorts. She later told police she had known it was drugs but was unsure what it had contained. Miss Wade said in a later phone call, which was intercepted by the prison authorities, her son was heard advising her to say he had forced her to smuggle in the drugs, saying she would not get into trouble. Passing sentence, recorder Christopher Tickle said the smuggling had been a sophisticated operation in being able to get the drugs past the sniffer dogs. He said: "Taking drugs into prison leads to a distortion of prison discipline, with people having power which they would not otherwise have. This leads to an alternative society to the prison authorities - it is a very destructive thing. "Of course, people like you are used to take the drugs in because the suppliers would not dream of it. You are a lady of good background, good sense and good community spirit, which stands you in good stead, but the other side of the coin is that should have led you to say 'no' to such a thing." Johnstone pleaded guilty before magistrates in November to supplying class C drugs and was jailed for a year. Sean Logan, defending, said Johnstone had been "at a low point in her life" when committing the offence at a time when she was suffering depression. He said: "She did it out of a misguided belief of protecting her son from a level of harassment. It does not justify it but merely explains why she did it."
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