A former Banff resident was sentenced to two years in jail after pleading guilty to four counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime.
In tears over closed circuit television, Kristan Miller was handed the sentence by Judge Les Grieve in Canmore Provincial Court last week.
Defence counsel Tyson Dahlem argued Miller would be a candidate for a conditional sentence to be served in the community.
Grieve, however, sided with Crown prosecutor Anita Szabo, who argued that due to the quantities and types of drugs she had in her possession she should spend up to three-and-a-half years behind bars.
“Drug offences contribute to social decay in our Canadian societies. It contributes to crime, ruins lives and causes death,” he said. “For the accused to care so little about other people who may ruin or end their lives because she wants to get high is shameful.”
Part of the issue for the judge was that in August, Miller was arrested in Calgary and charged with being in possession of 14 grams of ketamine, breaching her release conditions and resulting in her bail being revoked.
Miller subsequently pleaded guilty to the charges out of Banff, but Grieve said the fact she did not attempt to get help or treatment for drug addiction before being arrested in Calgary was one of the reasons he felt jail was appropriate.
“There are days I do not enjoy my work and I do not like to see a young person like you throw your life away when there is hope for recovery,” he said. “The types of drugs you were transporting for these drug dealers and the amounts cry out for a federal jail sentence.”
Szabo said RCMP received information last summer that Miller would be transporting drugs to a concert in Drayton Valley.
She said her vehicle was followed on Sept. 14, 2010 and observed speeding and subsequently pulled over and searched, with her residence also being searched afterwards.
Miller was found to be in possession of 250 tabs of LSD, 300 tablets of MDMA, which is a type of ecstasy, 124 grams of psilocybin or magic mushrooms, seven grams of ketamine and $3,820 cash.
“The courts have determined and treat ecstasy in the same manner as cocaine, they are both serious drugs,” said the Crown. “In this case, we don’t only have ecstasy in large quantities, we also have a potpourri, a drug store of drugs.”
Dahlem argued for a conditional sentence of two years less a day to help his client deal with her addiction to drugs.
“She is a drug addict and that is what brings her before the court today,” he said, adding the 28-year-old was acting as a mule for other persons by transporting the drugs she was caught with.
He pointed to a pre-sentence report prepared for her sentencing that identified her criminal behaviour as a function of her substance abuse.
Dahlem said she is motivated to address her addiction, has support from her family in Nanaimo and a spot in a rehabilitation program.
