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TAKE DRUGS, GET GOVERNMENT MONEY

It’s a win/win for Australian drug fiends:

Paavilainen’s defence counsel told the court his client had been a drug addict for 20 years, his problem so bad he qualified for a disability support pension.

Read on. Paavilainen is quite the deserving recipient.

Posted by Tim B. on 04/15/2008 at 10:19 AM
  1. Sounds like Joe Piscapo in Johnny Dangerously:

    We ARE handicapped, we’re psychotic!

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 04 15 at 10:39 AM • permalink

  2. “Morally speaking, no sentence is long enough,” Judge Nase said before ordering Paavilainen serve at least two years of a five year jail term.

    However, morally speaking, I guess some sentences, though not long enough, need not be particularly short. Why didn’t the guy get the full five? Or is that routine sentencing procedure?

    Posted by paco on 2008 04 15 at 10:42 AM • permalink

  3. “The defendant’s behaviour towards his 74-year-old mother in her own home is despicable,” Ms Currie said.

    How about his behavior to people in general????

     

    “Morally speaking, no sentence is long enough,” Judge Nase said before ordering Paavilainen serve at least two years of a five year jail term.

    No sentence is long enough, then only gives him 2 years??  WOW.  We get knocked in the US for having too many prisons, and it’s because people like this would be put away for a hell of a lot longer and deservedly so…

    Posted by Old Tanker on 2008 04 15 at 10:46 AM • permalink

  4. I think we’ve found the next lead vocalist for Midnight Oil.

    Posted by Mystery Meat on 2008 04 15 at 10:49 AM • permalink

  5. #2 Paco,

    Or is that routine sentencing procedure?

    It’s completely normal around these here parts.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2008 04 15 at 10:59 AM • permalink

  6. Tom Henrik Paavilainen, 37, told police after the April 28 incident last year he had simply “lost the plot”...

    So, he can blame the influence of post-modern literature, too.

    Posted by paco on 2008 04 15 at 11:00 AM • permalink

  7. Maybe Our Tom should considedr switching from opiates to, oh, potassium chloride?

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 15 at 11:35 AM • permalink

  8. The SMH article leaves out this bit that was in the news.com version:

    Judge Phil Nase said morally there was “no sentence long enough” for Paavilainen but he was constrained in his sentencing options by previous cases and precedents.

    So it looks like the judge actually wanted a much longer sentence but had to accept that it either wasn’t possible or would be overturned on appeal.

    Posted by Burbank on 2008 04 15 at 11:38 AM • permalink

  9. Judge Wexler: If my hands weren’t tied by the unalterable fetters of the law, then I would invoke the tradition of our illustrious forebears, reach back to a purer, sterner justice, and have you BURNED AT THE STAKE!
    —Ghost Busters 2

    Posted by mojo on 2008 04 15 at 11:46 AM • permalink

  10. #9 Sounds reasonable to me, but don’t forget the carbon offsets.

    Posted by Burbank on 2008 04 15 at 11:56 AM • permalink

  11. While we’re on the topic of fitting punishments, this may be of interest.

    Posted by Burbank on 2008 04 15 at 12:01 PM • permalink

  12. Mate, drug addicts have been able to get welfare benefits such as sickness and disability benefits here in New Zealand for ages.  I cannot confirm it but they can probably get their benefit direct credited into their dealer’s account straight from social welfare.

    Posted by brian_smaller on 2008 04 15 at 03:06 PM • permalink

  13. I don’t get money because I take drugs, I have to take drugs as part of getting my money.

    (They aint gonna trust me with currency unless I’m medicated.)

    Posted by mythusmage on 2008 04 15 at 04:07 PM • permalink

  14. “Morally speaking, no sentence is long enough,” Judge Nase said before ordering Paavilainen serve at least two years of a five year jail term.

    So, he’ll get out when his mother is 76 or 77, and even more helpless, and go back to abusing her for drug money.  And when she’s dead, the judge will blame society.

    The guy is a drug-addled moron criminal, he’s proved it time and again, and he’s not going to change!  LOCK HIM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY!

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 04 15 at 04:07 PM • permalink

  15. This is a long standing problem. The biggest offender is the Department of Veterans Affairs.
    If you have a problem with booze, there is tremendous financial reward.

    Posted by captain on 2008 04 15 at 05:01 PM • permalink

  16. A hot shot should fix the waste of space.

    Posted by kae on 2008 04 15 at 06:27 PM • permalink

  17. #2 Paco
    The police catch ‘em, the judges slap their wrists and send them on their way.

    #3 Old Tanker

    How about his behavior to people in general????

    This is his Mum, a woman over 70 years of age. If he’s going to do this to her the mind boggles at what he may do to a stranger he has no emotional connection with.
    However you look at what he did (what he may be capable of doing), it’s unacceptable and two years isn’t nearly enough.
    I’m with RebeccaH, lock him up, and throw away the key.

    Or a hot shot.

    Posted by kae on 2008 04 15 at 06:39 PM • permalink

  18. What happened to hanging judges? I mean hanging the judges.

    Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 15 at 07:27 PM • permalink

  19. #3 Old Tanker. Gidday. One of our issues in Australia is that we have way too many Social Workers. Universities term this qualification as a ‘social science’ degree. Get the drift.

    Since the 70s, their numbers have grown disproportionately to the demand for their services, although legal constraints that limited this Judge’s sentencing powers keep many of them occupied.

    They remain unaccountable and produce very little that a nurse, psychologist or a religious couldn’t achieve.

    Their main source of work is in the public domain and they feed off our inane mountain of laws that allow people like this guy to be forgiven and molly coddled back into society.

    This guy should be fronting a Taliban like court and dealt with in public.

    Posted by mehaul on 2008 04 15 at 07:52 PM • permalink

  20. Ok, as a JP (lowest form of justice) here in west Oz our basic guideline or rule of thumb for fines is 10% of the maximum it could be.

    So an offence which on the books would be looking at $10,000 can, by the time we deal with it, be looking at $1000.
    We can, and do, step over that occasionaly but if we made a habit of it wed be slapped down.
    To be fair we tend to get the silly and misguided rather than the mad and bad.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 04 15 at 08:20 PM • permalink

  21. “Morally speaking, no sentence is long enough,” Judge Nase said before ordering Paavilainen serve at least two years of a five year jail term.

    So he gave him no sentence.

    Posted by Contrail on 2008 04 15 at 08:34 PM • permalink

  22. #17 kae: Not so different from the States. I keep reading about guys who are arrested for, say, rape or murder (or rape and murder), and it’s, like, their fifth or sixth - or twentieth - offense.

    Posted by paco on 2008 04 15 at 10:01 PM • permalink


  23. I’d say he was deserving of far more social assistance. A room and board, for the rest of his life, rather than 2 to 5 years.

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2008 04 15 at 11:54 PM • permalink

  24. Regarding Medical Mary Jane -

    Users typically smoke marijuana to combat nausea and pain associated with chronic ailments, resulting from such infections as HIV and hepatitis C, after standard medicines fail.

    Mark Schollenberg, 42, of Stoney Creek, Ont., uses marijuana to control chronic pain from a series of workplace injuries. Unable to work and on disability, he initially used street marijuana but changed his mind.

    “I thought instead of causing myself any problems, I should get a licence and do it legally,” he said in an interview.

    With a doctor’s approval, Schollenberg got a licence and ordered his first batch of Health Canada dope last summer assuming Ottawa would cover the costs.

    He was cut off in October, now owes $3,962.34 including interest, and is back on the street to purchase his medicine.

    “I can’t even afford the black market,” he says of his five-gram-a-day requirement

    You see, it’s a nice little earner.

    (John Wilcox) ... says he became angry on learning that Health Canada charges users 1,500 per cent more than it pays Prairie Plant Systems for the dope.

    “At that point, I refused to pay,” he said in an interview. “Also, not to mention that their product is crap.”

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2008 04 15 at 11:59 PM • permalink

  25. So by “no sentence is long enough” what he meant was “no sentence is plenty.”

    Posted by moptop on 2008 04 16 at 02:38 PM • permalink

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