“I don’t want anything to do with it… it’s a bad thing, I don’t want it anywhere near my family,” Simone Evans said.
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Ms Evans - a recovering drug addict - speaks of the destructive illicit drug methylamphetamine or “ice”.
Her comments - made during an appearance in Young Local Court on June 16 - came just weeks after a well-attended ice awareness meeting in the town.
“It’s happening everywhere - [the crackdown on ice and people getting caught] - I believe it should be happening,” Evans said.
She described being high as feeling like she could rule the world.
The mother of five, who has just moved to Young from Melbourne, pleaded guilty before magistrate Peter Dare SC for possessing 1.81 grams of ice upon her arrival in April.
Evans told the court she had been an addict for a year and had recently stopped using the drug.
“It was a huge, huge mistake… I’m trying to get on top of it,” she said.
Evans said that going to court was “very scary” and that the drug was impacting on her relationship with her mother.
“I just don’t want to live my life like that,” she said.
“I’m 45, it’s about time I do it on my own.”
Mr Daresaid to Evans, “but you’re not alone, you have your family near you, you have access to help”.
“You haven’t been in any real trouble before have you?” he asked.
“I’m not going to punish you, I’m not going to put a conviction to your name.
“I think your lesson has been learnt,” he said.
Evans was given a 12 month good behaviour bond without a conviction.
According to police facts tendered in court, local police received information the day prior to Evans’ arrival in Young from Melbourne, that a woman travelling on a Countrylink bus was in possession of a quantity of drugs.
Highway patrol officers awaited the bus’s arrival at the Young Information Centre at 3.30pm on April 24 for a woman matching the description they were given.
Evans was the first to hop off the bus.
She initially denied having any drugs on her, until police began to search her and her bags.
Evans told them she had syringes in her handbag because she used “ice occasionally”.
Upon further questioning, Evans admitted she had some ice in a resealable bag wrapped in a tissue that had been purchased for $1000 in Melbourne.
Police also found several empty small resealable bags in her handbag.
Evans was conveyed to Young Police Station where she apologised for having the drug.
She said she “desperately needed help to get off her addiction”.
