Subj: Judges wage drugs war

Date: Mar 13, 1998

Source: Belfast Telegraph

Judges wage drugs war

Longer jail terms are suggested

DRUG dealers in Northern Ireland should be locked up for longer than in
the rest of the United Kingdom, the province's top judges have declared.
They described the present maximum of 14 years as "unrealistic" and
said new laws were necessary to curb the increasing drug trade in the
province.

Laying down new sentencing guidelines in the Court of Appeal, the
judges said: "We would express the hope that the Government in this
jurisdiction will review the limit as a positive effort to prevent Northern
Ireland becoming more deeply involved in the evil drug trade." The court
dismissed an appeal against a four-year jail sentence by David McIlwaine
(25), of Salia Avenue, Carrickfergus, who had pleaded guilty to
possessing almost 10kg of cannabis resin with a street value of
£100,000.

Delivering the court's reserved judgment, Lord Justice MacDermott said:
"This 10kg seizure indicates there is a growing amount of cannabis resin
in circulation in this jurisdiction and that the use of cannabis is on the
increase.

"That is a most regrettable situation and the courts must adjust their
levels of sentencing upwards in an attempt to deter such activity." He
quoted RUC statistics showing that seizures of cannabis rose from 97kg
in 1994 to 455kg last year.

Lord Justice MacDermott said: "While 10kg may be a common seizure in
England, it can in Northern Ireland represent the first flowering of a
developing drugs market which requires a forceful judicial response." He
said the law had not been changed since 1971 and a well-known
guideline case for sentencing was no longer appropriate.

The judge said the practice in England was to impose a 10-year sentence
for possession of 500kg of cannabis but the court felt that in Northern
Ireland, the possession of 200kg should merit such a sentence.

"We take this view because we are satisfied that it is essential that we try
to curb the increasing traffic in this drug in this jurisdiction," he said.

The three appeal judges said that while sentences could not be calculated
simply by weight or value, they felt possession of cannabis as low as 1kg
should result in at least five years imprisonment, rising to about 10 years
for 200kg.