An active low-level drug dealer convicted of possession with intent to sell or supply will not ordinarily receive a sentence less than immediate imprisonment merely because the quantity of drug on the occasion of apprehension was very small. The dealer's status as an active participant in drug distribution, evidenced by text messages and paraphernalia, is a sentencing factor that illuminates moral culpability and underscores the need for deterrence, and cannot be divorced from the assessment of the quantity involved. However, the dissent of Mazza JA leaves open the possibility that an extremely small quantity (0.03g) may in some circumstances constitute an exceptional circumstance warranting a suspended sentence.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 20 later cases that cite this judgment.
7 of the 20 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.