Crackdown: Leitrim judge takes stricter view on drug possession charges

Leitrim District Court Judge Sandra Murphy has started to take a stricter view on drug possession cases coming before her courts.

Last week three separate  defendants who appeared in Carrick-on-Shannon District Court pleading guilty to drug possession were each told to return to court with a letter from their GP and urine analysis showing their systems are clear of drugs.

 Solicitor Peter Collins who represented one of the defendants told the court that his client did not have a drug problem, but that drug taking “had become part of  stag parties” and  his client had only joined in for the “social occassion.”

 Representing a similar defendant he said drug taking was part of the “stag culture” in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Judge Sandra Murphy who presides over Carrick-on-Shannon and Manorhamilton District Courts said she saw possession charges as serious and “adding to illegal activities.”

She said she was not going to tolerate people coming to Carrick-on-Shannon to take drugs and stated it is not “normal culture.”

Two of the defendants had appeared before court for possession of cocaine  with values less than €100. 

The  third defendant appeared before court on a charge of drug possession for cannabis worth €10.

Judge Murphy did not accept from the defendants that they were just “social users” and asked for them to present evidence to the court from their GPs. The cases were adjourned for a month.

Previously, the majority of  young defendants before Leitrim  court on possession charges and with no previous convictions had been given the benefit of the probation act on a guilty plea.