SUSPENDED TERM FOR COKE DEALER

A Canberra man who supplied a "cooperative" of mature and affluent
people with cocaine was a leftover from the 1960s, the ACT Supreme
Court heard yesterday.

Justice Ken Crispin said that Edward Gentry, 59, of Fadden, pleaded
guilty of possessing a traffickable quantity of cocaine for sale or
supply, and possessing cannabis.

"It appears that the prisoner regularly purchased cocaine for
distribution to a circle of friends. In essence, there was a
cooperative venture amongst the group of people," he said.

This group comprised "mature people who lived in affluent
suburbs".

Justice Crispin said that although Gentry genuinely believed that he
had been committing a victimless crime, this was not the case.

He said it involved buying drugs from sources that ultimately led back
to supporting organised crime, and "people who prey upon the young and
naive and gullible in society".

Prosecutor Chris Todd said Gentry was arrested on August 3, when
police searched his silver Saab 9000 CS sedan. They had been
monitoring his phone calls for some time.

Gentry had shown them a plastic jar in the spare-tyre well in the
boot. The jar had contained 10 packets, or 7.069g, of white powder,
which was 35.6 per cent (or 2.062g) pure cocaine.

The court heard Gentry was convicted of the same offences, committed
in very similar circumstances in 1994. Justice John Gallop then fined
him $12,000.

Gentry, a former juvenile probation officer in Illinois, US, told the
court that he had been using drugs on and off since he was 21. He had
stopped using after his 1994 conviction, but had begun again last
year. He had been using cocaine one to three times a week during
social activities, and was an occasional user of cannabis.

He had been buying about 7g of cocaine for about $1700 every three
weeks, and distributing it to his friends at cost price. Other people
in the group would sometimes buy the drug in bulk. He said he would
test it for impurities, and to make sure it did not contain any other
drugs.

Gentry said he had never thought he had a drug problem before, as he
had still been able to go about his normal life and his behaviour had
not been affected.

Gentry's lawyer, Ken Cush, described Gentry as one of "the hippies of
the '60s [who have ended] up as the yuppies of 2000".

Justice Crispin said that in Gentry's favour, he had pleaded guilty,
was remorseful, promised not to use cocaine again, and, other than his
drug convictions, was a man of exemplary character.

He said he had thought long and hard about whether Gentry should go to
jail, and he had decided to give Gentry one last chance.

"You came right to the edge. You couldn't have come any closer to
going to jail without hearing the clang of the cell door," he told
Gentry.

Justice Crispin gave Gentry a 2-year suspended jail sentence, placed
him on a five-year $1000 good-behaviour bond and fined him $2000.