A Cumbrian man has been sentenced for illegal drug possession by a judge on a temporary stint in Carlisle who told a court: “In London, we are surprised if people aren’t found in possession of cannabis.”
Joe William Forrester, 25, attended the city’s crown court today without legal representation as the third week of strike action by barristers across England and Wales got under way.
On October 9, police stopped an Audi Forrester was driving on Penrith’s Ullswater Road. A clear bag containing mushroom stalks was found in the driver’s side door. Under the driver’s seat were 19 more individual bags containing magic mushrooms.
In addition, a personal use amount of cannabis was found in a bedroom at his home.
During a magistrates’ court hearing in April, Forrester admitted illegal possession of both class B cannabis and also magic mushrooms — which are classified as a class A controlled drug and contain a psychedelic compound. He also admitted having no insurance for the Audi when it was stopped.
Those guilty pleas put Forrester in breach of a suspended prison sentence. This was imposed in March 2021, for possession of an imitation firearm in an Appleby car park where, a judge had previously observed, Forrester was entirely out of control.
Today, Forrester opted to be sentenced without being legally represented after stating his lawyer did not get in touch.
The judge, Recorder Samantha Presland, noted that a probation service pre-sentence report detailed his compliance with other elements of the suspended sentence order (SSO) and that he was, she said, a model defendant.
Recorder Presland extended SSO’s length by two months for the breach. For the drug possession, Forrester, of Glebe Road, Appleby, was ordered to complete 50 hours’ unpaid work, with six penalty points added for having no insurance.
“Try and stay out of trouble,” he was told by Recorder Presland, who also made some observations about controlled drugs having previously sat on cases in Croydon.
“Quite frankly, in London we are surprised if people aren’t found in possession of cannabis,” she said.
Recorder Presland referred to the use of psilocybin — the psychedelic compound of magic mushrooms — being, she said, “used in various medical studies to break the chain of anxiety and depression”.
And she added: “Hopefully one day the law will catch up with the science because it does seem to make a mockery of the current system where drugs are tested time and time again, and are found to be incredibly effective in breaking the chain of anxiety and depression.”
