We’ve previously covered how easy it is to smuggle drugs into a music festival (that’s not a suggestion, by the way) and the worst ways you can go about it. However, the rather humorous case of Jamane ‘Jim’ Patterson really takes the cake, or in this case, the tab.
As the Gladstone Observer reports, back in March, Patterson headed off from Gladstone to the Future Music Festival at Doomben Racecourse in Brisbane, but a police sniffer dog tracked the LSD and MDMA tabs he had hidden in his wallet and the soles of his sneakers.
When questioned about the tablets hidden inside his footwear, Jamane pleaded ignorance, claiming he was unaware of the drugs hidden in his left sneaker sole. He told police (get this), “They’re not my shoes.”
“He said the shoes he was wearing were not his and he had not known the tablets were there,” prosecutor Nina Sulzer recently told Gladstone Magistrates Court, where Patterson was sentenced on drug offences after being arrested at the racecourse.
Patterson, 22, a chef, pleaded guilty to five counts of drug possession — LSD, MDMA, and cannabis — one count of supplying a dangerous drug (cannabis), and possession of utensils or pipes used in drug taking.
Ms Sulzer said Patterson tried to avoid festival police by walking away after he was detected by the dogs, but a search of his wallet and left shoe found 18 LSD and three MDMA tabs. Cannabis was later found in his motel room.
According to the Gladstone Observer, the drug supply charge stemmed from a text found on the 22-year-old’s mobile phone, which read, “Hey man its Jamane do you want some green.”
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Patterson’s defence lawyer, Kylie Devney, said her client obtained the LSD over the internet. The reason he was in possession of so many tabs, she said, was because they had been sourced as experimental medical drugs at $1 each and were not very strong.
“So why did he have them at a music festival if they were for medical purposes?” magistrate Penelope Hay asked. “They weren’t for a medical purpose, he obtained them to use illegally,” Ms Devney said. She claimed Patterson’s cannabis use was a form of self-medication for depression issues.
Patterson had previous charges stemming from an RBT conducted back in April. Patterson was stopped for a breath test at 1am on 22nd April. Police smelled burned cannabis and found a bong behind his seat, as well as 25.3 grams of cannabis divided into nine clip seal bags.
Patterson was placed on probation for 12 months to be supervised with urine tests. He will presumably be double-checking to make sure he’s wearing his own shoes before heading out to music festivals in the future.
