ADDICT JAILED FOR GIVING METHODONE TO FRIENDS

A BALLYCLARE man who shared his legally prescribed methodone with
three friends has been given a five-year custody/probation sentence
at Belfast Crown Court for supplying a Class A drug to others.

Raymond Hogg (27), now with an address in Southampton, had originally
been charged with the manslaughter of one of the three, Robert
Heaney, (22) who was found dead the following morning, February 14,
1999.

But last month the prosecution withdrew the charge, accepting that
the supply and use of methodone did not cause Mr Heaney's death.

Hogg then pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying methodone to
others on February 13, 1999.

The court heard the four men, with other companions, had been
drinking in the Red Hand Bar in Ballyclare on the evening of February
13.

All had consumed a large quantity of alcohol, and Hogg had offered
the others a drink from the 500ml bottle of methodone which he had
just collected from the chemist.

The defendant had been registered as a heroin addict in June 1996,
and from that time had been prescribed the synthetic substitute of
methodone.

Defence QC John Cushinan pointed out that this had not been a
"commercial transaction" and all three men had taken the methodone
voluntarily.

He added that Hogg deeply regretted the death of his friend Robert Heaney.

Mr Justice McLaughlin said the casual and wholly irresponsible manner
in which this dangerous drug was supplied was 'alarming and
frightening' to law-abiding members of the community.

"Your breach of trust in the way you handled this drug and supplied
it to your friends is so serious that only an immediate custodial
sentence will suffice."

He added that it was essential that the community in Northern Ireland
was aware that the courts would treat the drug problem with
seriousness.

"The courts will do everything possible to deter persons from
supplying drugs, even in circumstances where the drug is possessed
legally," he went on.

Hogg was jailed for three years, and ordered to spend two years on
probation following his release.