Where the statutory circumstance of aggravation of adverse drug effect cannot be established due to inability to deduce the effect from blood concentration, the presence of drugs in a driver's system remains relevant to sentencing as evidence of the driver's attitude to their driving obligation and reckless disregard for risk. The failure to establish that drugs caused the offending does not permit a positive finding that the driver was unaffected. For professional heavy vehicle drivers, drug use while driving is a powerful factor calling for general deterrence and actual incarceration. However, delay of approximately seven months between filing of an Attorney-General's appeal and its hearing, combined with the respondent's ongoing rehabilitation from drug addiction and frail mental health, may engage the residual discretion to decline to resentence even where error and manifest inadequacy are established.
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