The Alberta Court of Appeal has overturned a two-year conditional sentence granted by Judge John Reilly to a drug dealer found with a virtual drug store a year ago.
Joseph Arthur Dow pleaded guilty last summer to three counts of possession, three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime.
In June of 2010, Reilly handed down the conditional sentence order, which included one year of house arrest.
While Dow was charged with breaching the order in August and detained at that time, the Federal Crown prosecutor’s office appealed Reilly’s sentence and it was overturned last month.
The Crown argued that a conditional sentence for trafficking in the quantity and variety of drugs Dow had at the time of his arrest was unfit.
He was arrested at the end of January after a 911 call was made asking police to attend his residence.
RCMP discovered 50 grams of cocaine, 40 tabs of LSD, 29 tabs of MDMA (ecstasy), 14 grams of marijuana, 12 tabs of methamphetamine and 11 grams of psilocybin (magic mushrooms).
The Court of Appeal agreed with the Crown and determined the sentence was demonstrably unfit and sentenced Dow to a two-and-a-half year jail sentence.
In a written decision, Justice J.A. Rowbotham was critical of Reilly’s sentence as it did not follow provisions set out in the Criminal Code.
“It was not open to the sentencing judge to disregard guidance of this court, to disregard the sentencing provisions of the Criminal Code and to set his own idiosyncratic policy,” wrote Rowbotham.
The Justice wrote the starting point sentence for commercial trafficking in cocaine is three years and pointed to precedents that saw the court order an 18-month jail term for trafficking of less than 50 grams of cocaine.
“The respondent had in his possession for the purposes of trafficking the same amount of cocaine,” wrote Rowbotham. “In addition to the cocaine, the respondent had a virtual drug store with the ability to supply a wide variety of dangerous and addictive drugs.”
