The established pattern of more lenient sentences for GBL offences compared to other drugs such as methamphetamine should be followed in NSW for federal offences, consistent with DPP v Maxwell. Where the prosecution fails to adduce evidence of the value of GBL, it is unfair to sentence on the assumption that GBL has equivalent value to higher-value drugs. Where a sentencing judge has already taken an offender's addiction-related motive into account when assessing objective gravity, the offender cannot separately rely on the same nexus between mental condition and offending to obtain a further reduction in moral culpability.
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