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Judge orders essay for drug punishment
By Larissa Cummings
November 04, 2009 12:39pm
A YOUNG man caught with ecstasy tablets in his wallet has been ordered by a Sydney magistrate to write a school-type essay on the ills of the drug.
Waverley magistrate Lee Gilmour has taken to assigning essays to first-time offenders in order to be satisfied they have learnt their lesson and qualify for a Section 10 good behaviour bond without a conviction.
John Daiken, 24, fell into this category when he came before Ms Gilmour this morning, having pleaded guilty to possessing two ecstasy tablets.
Daiken, from Northmead, was found with the drug in his wallet when police pulled him over in Maroubra in September.
Before his lawyer could apply for a Section 10 bond, Ms Gilmour asked Daiken to write her an assignment on ecstasy.
"I'm so sick of dealing with people with one, two, three or four ecstasy tablets on them," she said.
"If it wasn't for silly people like you paying good money for this trash, there wouldn't be a market for it."
Ms Gilmour said the drug was a huge cost to society and writing an assignment on the drug and its effects was the only way she knew how to make young people understand the dangers they are dabbling with.
"I have a number of assignments sitting on my desk at the moment - I feel like a school teacher," she said.
She specified the essay was to be hand-written ("not cut and pasted from Google") and focus on the ingredients of ecstasy, how it is made, where it is made, what it can do to you physically and the toll it takes on the community.
"When you've done that, you can come back here and I may be prepared to let you go conviction free," she said.
"I want you to spread the word."
Daiken will find out if his essay passed or failed on November 11.
The Daily Telegraph