An 18-year-old has been sentenced to three years for selling ecstasy and cannabis worth a measly £200 in what we are supposed to believe is a success story in the so-called war on drugs.
Lewis Bates of Granmoor, Runcorn, will now spend the next three years in a young offenders’ institution after pleading guilty to possession with intent to supply a Class A drug and two counts of selling a Class B drug, cannabis and cannabis resin.
Bates was sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday, 17 September. He was charged on 19 August after police approached him for “acting suspiciously” and found him to be in possession of the drugs. After his home was raided a mobile phone containing evidence of drug dealing activity was found.
Police Constable Chris Roberts, who led the investigation for Runcorn Local Policing Unit, said: “Illegal drugs have a hugely detrimental impact on our communities. They cause widespread misery and removing those involved in drug dealing from our town is of paramount importance.
“I hope that the sentence handed to Bates reaffirms the message that drug dealing in Runcorn and the wider Cheshire area will not be tolerated.
“I also hope that it deters others from getting involved in the supply of illegal drugs.”
Yes – because decades of punitive action has clearly had a deterring effect! Does drug dealing cause “widespread misery” or does widespread misery as a result of austerity and poverty cause drug dealing?
An 18-year-old petty drug runner now has to spend three years in prison as a criminal when the truth is that he has been victimised by a dystopic socio-economic system that creates and then criminalises poverty.
We can only hope that by the time Bates gets out we have won an end to prohibition and reforms that expunge his record and enable him to gain employment in the legalised cannabis industry.
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