Magistrate blasts Sydney’s cocaine culture: ‘It doesn’t pay off’
A magistrate sick of seeing cocaine cases in his court has blasted Sydney’s drug culture, warning users not to “roll the dice” on getting caught. In the same court complex, a dealer found with eight bags of cocaine stashed in her bra was convicted.
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The cocaine crisis in Sydney’s affluent suburbs has been laid bare in court, with an exasperated magistrate blasting its rampant use at Royal Randwick and his colleague convicting a dealer found with eight bags of the drug stashed in her bra in Bondi.
“People who wish to flout the law, obtain drugs and take them to have a good time must get a message that it’s not acceptable, that it’s not a matter of rolling the dice and taking a punt, because sometimes when that happens it doesn’t pay off and it doesn’t pay off to you,” Magistrate Greg Grogin told Waverley Local Court this week after hearing multiple cases of men being caught with coke at race events.
The lashing comes as NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller warned that police would continue to put resources into arresting low and mid-level cocaine dealers because he didn’t want Sydney looking like “Amsterdam”, warning that drug use among young people was at “plague proportions”.
“People talk about Amsterdam and I’ve been there and I would hate for Sydney to look like Amsterdam,” he said.
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Mr Fuller said cocaine was a “postcode drug” and a gateway to amphetamine use for many people.
“Looking at the wastewater testing in the eastern suburbs, northern suburbs it’s extremely common,” he said.
“It is very addictive and it’s expensive … we know at a point in time most people won’t be able to afford to be a regular cocaine user, which means they will go onto amphetamine-based drugs.
“The parents, in the ’60s, probably dabbled once or twice with drugs … but what they need to understand is, there are young people out there at the moment, and if you look at the wastewater testing, are using cocaine, MDMA, ice and cannabis in plague proportions.”
In just one day at Waverley Local Court The Daily Telegraph witnessed multiple cases of young men — some with no criminal records — appear before Mr Grogin after being caught with drugs at major race meets.
“Another race day on cocaine?” a frustrated Mr Grogin told Patrick McNamara, 28, who was caught with cocaine by police dogs on October 19.
Thomas Charles Harvey Waddington, 22, was also caught with two caps containing MDMA at The Everest.
According to documents tendered to court, police had launched the sting at The Everest because “Royal Randwick Racecourse meets are generally known for patrons in attendance engaging in possession and supply of prohibited drug offences”.
McNamara was placed on a two-year conditional release order.
Waddington pleaded guilty to possessing MDMA and was placed on a two-year conditional release order. “People die from using ecstasy, you know that, you’ve read about it, heard about it and there’s been an inquest into it,” Mr Grogin told him.
Daniel John Maittlen, whose mother supported him in court, also pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited drug after he was caught with 0.8 grams of cocaine at Royal Randwick’s Australian Turf Club on August 21.
Mr Grogin told Mr Maittlen and his mum: “she’s scared, she’s worried – but more importantly, she loves you”.
“There needs to be a message sent to the community. We’ve had inquests into MDMA and yet people take MDMA … (It’s) absolutely appalling and absolutely pathetic because you chose to embark on a criminal enterprise.”
The “dial-a-dealers” who supply the east’s social set also appeared at court this week, including Mariam Jaber who was caught with coke in her bra. According to police facts, officers saw a man enter her car outside Bondi’s Royal Hotel before intercepting him and finding a bag of cocaine on August 2.
Police then pulled over Jaber, 21, who reached into her bra to reveal a hidden plastic bag which contained eight smaller bags of cocaine. She avoided jail time and copped a one-year intensive corrections order.