Self-medication by use of prohibited drugs to overcome psychological or physical trauma, including PTSD and head injury, is not a mitigating factor in sentencing for armed robbery. The fact that drug addiction arose from traumatic life experiences does not of itself make the addiction mitigating; the relevant principles in R v Henry at [273](c)(ii) require that the addiction was not a matter of personal choice, such as where it arose from medical prescription of addictive drugs. A sentencing judge who applies the Henry guideline must give a separate discount for an early guilty plea, as the guideline only accounted for a late plea of little utilitarian value.
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