Rebellious upbringing 'contributes to drug use, trafficking'

He began selling the drug to help out a friend and to finance his own use.

Lloyd Jacobus Bethel, 26, from Camira, pleaded guilty in the District Court at Ipswich to trafficking dangerous drugs, marijuana, and guilty to possession of a mobile phone used to commit drug offences. Picture: David Nielsen

REBELLIOUS teen behaviour over a strict religious upbringing and anxiety may partly be blamed for an offender's use and trafficking of illicit drugs.

An Ipswich court heard the street-level drug trafficker of nearly two years ago who "used pot daily” had since ceased taking drugs.

Lloyd Jacobus Bethel, 26, from Camira, pleaded guilty in the District Court at Ipswich to trafficking dangerous drugs, marijuana, between March 1, 2016 and September 20, 2016, and guilty to possession of a mobile phone on September 20, 2016, that was used to commit drug offences.

Crown prosecutor Caitlin Thompson said when police examined Bethel's mobile phone it revealed he had been trafficking in marijuana for seven months.

She said he was largely a street-level dealer who had 19 customers and found to have made 24 supplies.

Judge Dennis Lynch QC noted that it amounted to an average of nearly four per month.

Ms Thompson said he was then a youthful offender and the Crown sought a jail term of up to two-and-a-half years.

Defence barrister Amelia Loode said the Innisfail-born man grew up in a Christian environment as a Jehovah's Witness and has strong family support. He suffers anxiety and was seeing a drug counsellor.

"He started using drugs at 17, perhaps a rebellion to his very strict upbringing,” she said.

"He continued using daily pot and began drinking Jack Daniels.”

Ms Loode said although Bethel stopped his drug use in 2014 he began smoking weed again at the end of 2015.

He began selling the drug to help out a friend and to finance his own use. He also lost his job.

Judge Lynch said it was clearly low-level, sporadic transactions used to self-medicate for life's stresses and anxiety.

He said it was significant and commendable that he had taken "very real steps”, and was now drug free.

Bethel was sentenced to 18-months jail with immediate parole.