A sentencing judge may reduce the head sentence for a drug trafficking offence and increase sentences for concurrent non-drug offences in order to bring the trafficking sentence within the range permitting suspension under s 144 PSA, thereby avoiding the mandatory 80% custody requirement under s 5(2) DMA. The sentencing options in Griffiths v The Queen are not exhaustive and do not preclude adjustments necessary to sentence justly within mandatory provision frameworks. A sentence in the order of six years imprisonment is appropriate for commercial street-level trafficking in methylamphetamine over approximately five months with entrepreneurial attributes.
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