JUDGE PUTS BRAKES ON ADD DRUG

Parents must be able to give children the Attention Deficit Disorder drug,
dexamphetamine, to take to school without any fear that the tablets will be
sold by them or taken away by someone else to be sold, a judge has said.

District Court Judge Antoinette Kennedy said yesterday dealing in the drug
was a serious offence despite the small amount of amphetamine in the tablets.

"I want to get the message out to kids that this is amphetamine and they
can't deal in it," she said.

Judge Kennedy sentenced Richard Frederick Young, 18, to a 12-month
community based order with 70 hours community service for possessing
dexamphetamine with intent to sell or supply.

His lawyer, Justine Fisher, argued for a spent conviction but Judge Kennedy
refused. "I have already indicated that this is serious," she said. "He had
in his possession a quantity of a prohibited drug with intent.

"The community has decided on a justice model for these matters, and has
decided they are serious."

Prosecutor Tony Derrick said Young had been walking along Wattle Road,
Bicton, last September when he was approached and spoken to by police.

Young told them he had dexamphetamines and when police searched him they
found he had a bottle of 95 dexamphetamines each of 5mg strength. The
dexamphetamine content was 0.475g.

Young said he got the tablets from a friend who had an ADD prescription and
they were for another friend who also had ADD.

He had been unaware, until he picked up the tablets, that any money would
change hands.

The supplier had apparently wanted $192 for the tablets.

Judge Kennedy said that equality would have to brought to the matter on all
sides.

The man who supplied the tablets, Andrew David Wellings, 27, appeared in
the District Court on December 8 and was sentenced to a 12-month community
based order with 120 hours community service.

On that basis, Judge Kennedy was prepared to give Young the same sentence
but reduced his community service requirement to 70 hours because he was at
the lower end of the scale and had acted as a courier.

There has been a big increase in the number of dexamphetamines seized by
police. Between 1998 and 1999 seizures of dexamphetamines rose 88.6 per cent.

Dexamphetamines are prescribed in WA at up to seven times the rate in other
States.