Legal high supplier stays out of jail due to changed behaviour

A woman from Angus who pleaded guilty to supplying a banned legal high has avoided a prison sentence because her behaviour has undergone a sea change.

Nadine Hume from Arbroath appeared at Forfar sheriff court charged with supplying methylmethcathinone in 2012. This legal high, which is a compound of cathinone, has been artificially manufactured and sold bearing the label ‘bath salts’. It became a banned substance in 2010 at the same time as other legal highs, including mephedrone, became illegal.

Ms Hume alleged that she had been storing the substances for a former partner during October 2010 and had been waiting for him to collect the drugs when the police arrived at her home on Glenogil Drive. Ms Hume’s solicitor claimed that there was a history to the supplying charge and that his client had undergone a sea change in her behaviour since the offence.

Her solicitor said: “She has demonstrated over the course of three years she has completely moved away from offending, completely moved away from drugs. To impose a punitive element in the sentence is not giving Ms Hume credit for her behaviour so far.”

Sheriff Gregor Murray, who heard the appeal, agreed with the solicitor. The charge against Ms Hume was changed to a six-month community payback order, whereby she has to complete 90 hours of unpaid work. He also claimed that the decision had been influenced by another case.