Drug addicts 'have an illness'

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by Change | 29 Oct 2008

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The attitude of police towards arresting known drug users has come under criticism in a recent course case.

Police have come under criticism after recently arresting a known drug user for possessing five grams of amphetamine and 0.3 grams of cannabis, it has been reported.

Drug abuser Amy Buckley was searched by officers in Neath Port Talbot who found the substances, according to the Neath Guardian.

The defendant is said to have had an 11-year heroin addiction but had allegedly been clean for five months before the offence.

While Ms Buckley is due to undergo a drug rehabilitation course, her legal aide described the police's attitude to arresting drug-users as "shooting fish in a barrel".

The newspaper reports lawyer Hywel Rees told the court: "She was a known drug-user and it was almost inevitable, a nine-in-ten chance, that she would have some on her. These people have an illness and are doing their best to conquer that illness and get back on the straight and narrow."

Ms Buckley had allegedly told her arresting officers the drugs were for her own personal use.

In other news, the Bristol Evening Post reported a caretaker at a council flat in the city has been charged for allowing cannabis growers to operate from there.

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