Trafficking in cannabis on a substantial and sustained commercial scale (here, 767 grams over 12-18 months as a general retail business) generally requires an immediate custodial sentence, which will usually only be avoided by exceptional countervailing factors. Mitigating factors such as absence of significant prior convictions, cooperation with police, family circumstances, and post-offence rehabilitation efforts are insufficient to neutralise the gravity of such offending. On a Crown appeal, the element of double jeopardy warrants a sentence less than that which should have been imposed at first instance.
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