James Joel Ramsay caught drug driving twice in a month claimed he was ‘reducing’ his drug use

The 28-year-old said he was reducing drug use but a probation order with random drug testing might make sure of it.

A 28-year-old father of two who claimed he had “actively been reducing his drug use” will have to reduce it more after being placed on nine months probation.

James Joel Ramsay, who had recently moved to Toowoomba from southwest Queensland, pleaded guilty before Toowoomba Magistrates Court to a series of drug offences committed before he left the west.

Police prosecutor Rowan Brewster-Webb said a police search of Ramsay’s possessions at St George on November 6, 2023, had turned up 0.9g of cannabis, a water pipe for smoking it and electronic scales for weighing the drug.

Two weeks later the 28-year-old had been caught driving with methamphetamine and cannabis in his system on the Warrego Highway near Roma and then, on December 10, Ramsay tested positive for cannabis after being pulled over by police on Cottell St, Roma, he said.

Ramsay pleaded guilty to all charges.

His solicitor Michael Corbin submitted for a term of probation, telling the court his client instructed he had “actively been reducing his drug use”.

His client had recently moved to Toowoomba where he was in full time employment, he said.

Magistrate Clare Kelly placed Ramsay on nine months probation to include random testing for illicit drugs and on each of the drug-driving offences disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for three months.