Where drug addiction is caused by mental impairment and there is also a direct causal link between the impairment and the offending (not merely an indirect link through the drug addiction), the Verdins principles apply to reduce culpability, though the concurrent drug craving moderates the available mitigation. An offender's own attribution of offending to drug habit does not negate unchallenged expert evidence of a causal connection between mental impairment and offending. Participation in restorative justice is to be taken into account as evidence of remorse, acceptance of responsibility, commitment to rehabilitation, and accountability to victims. The period between grant of parole on other offences and expiry of that sentence should be counted as pre-sentence custody where the offender was denied liberty due to remand on current charges.
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