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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Teaching assistant who gave her children cannabis spared jail
Daily Mail
Tuesday 09 Oct 2007 A teaching assistant who supplied cannabis to her two children to stop them visiting street dealers has been spared jail. Nicola Cooper, 43, intervened when she learned her teenage son and daughter had experimented with the drug because she feared they would be lured into trying hard drugs and become involved in crime. When police raided her home they found 116 grams of cannabis resin, worth £200. Cooper could have been jailed but a district judge gave her a 200-hour community sentence after hearing about her good character. She had already quit her job following her arrest earlier this year, according to East Anglia News. Speaking after the hearing, Cooper insisted she had "done the right thing" to keep her children away from dealers. But she added: "I don't want my children involved in it any more. I think I was very lucky today. I could have been given a much heavier sentence or even jailed. "The kids would just come down and say 'Do you mind if we pinch a little smoke because we fancy one?'. "I regret breaking the law and feel sorry for that. Some people give their children alcohol and cigarettes at an early age - but I gave mine cannabis." Her partner of 25 years, engineering company director Ian Leppard, 51, added: "When we found out our kids were smoking, we sat down as a family to discuss it. "We didn't want them getting involved in anything else or the underground drug culture. We just told them to stay at home and keep it to themselves." Bury St Edmunds Magistrates Court heard how the support assistant at Barrow Primary School, near the town, had used cannabis herself "on and off" since she was 18. She started giving the drug to her daughter when she was 16 and her son when he was 18 but insisted she only allowed them to use it occasionally. On June 16 this year police, acting on "intelligence", presented her with a warrant to search her home in Ixworth, near Bury St Edmunds, and she led them to where she stashed the drug. She admitted supplying cannabis at a hearing last month. Kevin McCarthy, defending, said it was "ironic" that Cooper had acted to keep her children, who are now 18 and 20, away from dealers. "The reason for the supply was to keep those cherished children away from the drug culture," he told the court. The court received letters of support for Cooper, including one from a GP and another from a retired detective who spent 32 years with Suffolk police. A note from Barrow Primary School headteacher John Gibson said she had been a "valuable member of staff". District Judge David Cooper accepted Cooper had been a good teacher but accused her of "sheer arrogance" in acting as if the law did not apply to her. "Until the law is changed, you must abide by it. It's particularly important for a teacher to ensure that she does," he said. A Suffolk County Council spokesman said: "She has resigned her post and that is the end of it. "It is a matter of concern to the school and the council if anyone breaks the law when it has relevance to their jobs." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
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