Magistrate issues warning over ‘detestable drug’

By Shannon Colee and Monique Preston

Jul 31, 2023

In court: A man has pleaded guilty to drug driving. Photo by Holly Daniel

“Methamphetamine is a drug that if you keep using it, it will drag you to your knees and take everything away.”

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That was the warning from a magistrate to a man who said he had used the drug after a party.

Kane Ryan, 39, of Toolamba, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to drug driving.

Prosecutor Senior Constable Luke Lund told the court that police intercepted the man driving on North Katamatite-Shepparton Rd at Katamatite at 12.25pm on December 4 last year.

The court heard Ryan told police at the time he had used methamphetamines seven days prior to being pulled over and that he was not expecting for it to still be in his oral fluid.

Representing himself in court, Ryan described his drug use as casual and said that this particular time was after a 40th birthday where he used methamphetamines at another person’s house.

He also said he was not sure what the drug was when he used it.

Ryan said “it was a mistake” and that he was “trying to move on”.

Magistrate Peter Mithen said it was “more than a mistake”.

“Driving with methamphetamine in your system … it’s a detestable drug,” Mr Mithen said.

Ryan was fined $300, his driver’s licence was cancelled and he was disqualified from driving for 12 months.

He will also have to do a drug driving education course before he can get his licence back.