NO JAIL TIME FOR TEENAGE DRUG DEALER

The city high school teen whose extracurricular drug dealing was
bringing in thousands of dollars in cash has been grounded for two
years. Justice Marsha Erb placed Wesley Jason Wong under house arrest
yesterday, refusing a Crown application to send him to a federal
penitentiary.

But before granting Wong a conditional sentence, the Queen's Bench
judge gave him a dressing down, suggesting he may have the drug deaths
of fellow teens on his hands.

"You have become, by choice, nothing more than a low-life drug
dealer," Erb told Wong, who was barely 18 years old when arrested 17
months ago.

She said Wong has caused "countless pain" to families all over Calgary
by feeding drug users' addictions and it was likely "teenagers have
died because of you.

"That is a thought you will never escape," the judge
said.

"It is disturbing, to say the least, to see a very young man before
the courts on such serious charges."

Wong, now 19, pleaded guilty Thursday to four charges, including
possessing ecstasy and two forms of cocaine for the purpose of
trafficking and having a prohibited 9-mm handgun.

Crown prosecutor Bob Sigurdson sought a prison term of up to three
years, noting Wong had up to $15,000 worth of drugs in his bedroom in
his mother's northwest home and more than $10,000 cash.

Sigurdson said the then-Grade 12 student also had a machete, baton and
ammunition for the handgun stashed in the room.

But Erb agreed with defence lawyer Jim Ogle that jail wouldn't be the
best way to rehabilitate his client.

The judge said she didn't want to send such a young man to prison
"along with some of the worst individuals society has to offer."

Wong must live under house arrest at his aunt's home when he isn't
working, going to school, attending counselling, completing community
service hours, or for medical emergencies.