One year for under a gram of heroin

A 36-YEAR-OLD heroin addict was devastated yesterday when he was jailed for 12 months after being caught with less than a gram of the A-class narcotic.

Speaking from his holding cell minutes before he was taken away to Nicosia’s Central Prisons the man said he couldn’t get over the injustice of his sentence.

“It wasn’t even half a gram. It was 0.165 grams,” he said.

Looking shell-shocked, the 36-year-old admitted he had never stopped using since his bust in the summer of 2006.

“Now and again he still uses,” a friend of his said.

Slumped in a chair with his friend sitting next to him for support, the shaven-head man looked lost and confused.

“It was half a gram. I got a year. I had a clean record otherwise,” he said.

“It was for my own personal use. I was arrested for possession and use and jailed for a year.”

The 36-year-old had obviously not been expecting the sentence and nor apparently were other people who rang on his friend’s mobile to ask what had happened.

“Tell them. Let them guess,” he said.

The man said he had been arrested three years ago after he was given up to the Drug Law Enforcement Unit by someone who knew him.

“Yeah, I was grassed out… The b*stard,” he said.

So what would he do now?

“We’ll see when I get out,” he said.

As the 36-year-old rose to leave the temporary holding cell to be taken to his new dwellings for the next year, he looked a sorry sight in his faded dark T-shirt and jeans, handcuffed to another prisoner.

“You’re fearless,” his friend said slapping him on the back for support as he shuffled out.

Perhaps jail would help him get clean?

“We can also find drugs on the inside,” his friend replied.