20 year old Kirsty Cummins, who admitted to having €240,000 worth of class A drugs, has avoided jail for a second time after the DPP’s appeal of her ‘overly lenient’ suspended sentence failed to secure a stay in jail.
It was reported that the Drimnagh woman, who was 18 at the time of the offense, was seen by members of An Garda Siochana entering a flat and later emerging carrying a bag which contained approximately €70,000 worth of cocaine and approximately €172,000 worth of heroin.
Although the court heard that Cummins was unlikely to have any “proprietary interest” in the drugs, she pleaded guilty to possession of the narcotics for sale or supply.
While my knowledge of how much drugs cost is somewhat lacking, €240,000 worth sounds like rather a lot – As drugs go class A stuff is, well, class A and therefore one might reasonably assume that possession of a large amount of it for the purpose of sale is a really serious offense.
After all, isn’t the dangerous and illegal nature of drugs why so many adorable doggos have jobs at airports, prisons, and the like?
The state had argued that a suspended sentence was too lenient given that Cummins’ co accused – who was also pregnant at the time of the offense – had been sentenced to three years behind bars.
Cummins’ lack of previous convictions, the fact that she is a mother, and her youth are very likely factors that influenced Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly in suspending the sentence yet again.
However, this writer wonders if leniency of this nature might not encourage drug pushers to target young, pregnant, and seemingly naive people to do their dirty work.
One might easily consider the negative impact a mother behind bars would surely have on a young infant, and we certainly don’t want to go the way of places like Mexico, Costa Rica or Afghanistan who allow children to live in jail with their mothers.
Having said that, drugs have had – and are having – a devastating effect on this country. One need only take a stroll down the streets of Dublin to see zombified people hobbling through the streets or passed out in corners.
The barrister defending Cummins is reported to have said that she comes from a “stable and loving” home – I have to wonder how many stable and loving homes have been torn asunder in part because of the actions of drug dealers like her.
It’s something I didn’t witness once in Japan or Korea where possession of even small amounts of drugs like cannabis will land you straight in the clink for a long time.
You might argue that if it wasn’t drugs, sure, wouldn’t it be the drink, and maybe you’d be right, but I often wonder what all those lovely young Irish men and women might have done with their lives had they not been so withered and broken by years of drug abuse.
It makes me very sad to think about all the wasted potential and suffering that those substances have unleashed on Éire.
When considering the horrific toll drugs, like the ones Cummins was caught with, have taken on children, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, cousins, and indeed friends, I think suspending her sentence twice sends a harmful message about the seriousness and dangers of getting involved with narcotics.