BY KEITH LACEY
A local drug dealer obviously didn?t learn his lesson and it will cost him 18 months of freedom.
Only months after being caught trafficking from his residence last March, Ronald Lee, 37, was again caught doing the same thing two weeks ago.
Lee pleaded guilty to several counts of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, possessing property obtained by crime and breach of court
orders Thursday.
He was sentenced to 18 months in jail and avoided a penitentiary term only because these were his first drug convictions and he had managed to
spend 12 years not getting into any trouble with the law.
Federal Crown prosecutor Robert Topp told the court police raided Lee?s apartment on March 11, 2004 and found 360 grams of marijuana, a small amount of prescription pills, a debt list and $190 in cash. The total amount of drugs seized was about $2,000.
Because he was co-operative with police, Lee was released from custody pending sentencing on those charges when he was caught again two
weeks ago, said Topp.
Another police raid at a different apartment being rented by Lee uncovered 145 grams of cannabis, some prescription pills, another debt list and over
$3,700 in cash, most of which was discovered inside a plastic bag inside a freezer.
?When you look at the debt lists involved, it was a very, very busy small commercial drug operation,? said Topp.
Defence counsel Craig Fleming said Lee has a long criminal record, but hadn?t been in any trouble for almost 13 years after beating a drug addiction.
Lee became a carpenter and worked hard to be successful for more than a decade, he said.
However, Lee got into a motorcycle accident and suffered serious injuries and when denied an application for medicinal use of marijuana, resorted to medicating himself with illicit narcotics, said Fleming.
Lee has shown he can successfully seek out treatment, stay straight and contribute to society and wants a chance to do it again, said Fleming.
Topp said he would normally ask for a penitentiary term for anyone caught trafficking twice in such a short period of time, but agreed an 18-month sentence was appropriate when you consider all the circumstances of this case.
Justice William Fitzgerald agreed to the 18-month sentence and prohibited Lee from owning or possessing prohibited weapons for 10 years.
