POLL | What should the primary focus be in our efforts to end the ice epidemic?

Troy Grant said the impact of ice on areas like Tamworth was nothing short of horrific, and the battle to save loved ones from the addictive nature of the deadly and dangerous drug was extremely tough.

While he admitted police couldn’t arrest their way out of the epidemic, Mr Grant said maximum penalties of life imprisonment for some ice-supply and manufacture were given to the courts for a reason.

“We’ve seen in some of the commentary, the average sentences are far less than that and I don’t think meet community expectations,” he said in Tamworth.

“So there’s a lot of  work the judiciary needs to do to help the community more broadly, holding those to account for putting this insidious drug out into the community.”

Speaking after hearing stories from the frontline at a roundtable convened to look at strategies to overcome the epidemic locally, 

Mr Grant said communities expected the courts to punish and deter drug peddlers to ensure they don’t  re-offend.

Magistrates, who live and preside over courts in the New England North West, are confronted with drug possession and supply cases on a daily basis, while large-scale supply and manufacturing offences are committed to the district court.

While he said the judiciary needed to be independent, Mr Grant, a former police officer himself, acknowledged district court judges were fly-in, fly-out from Sydney and Newcastle, to preside over sittings in Tamworth, Armidale and Moree, and were not living in the communities themselves.

“But, by the same token, the judiciary are an extension of the community and need to reflect the community sentiments, so I think the onus is on the chief magistrate and judges of each jurisdiction of NSW to continually educate magistrates and judges what the community expectations are and apply the sentences to our wishes,” he said.

“Until that occurs, we’re continually going to have this disconnect which is going to frustrate not only the community but it frustrates law enforcement, it frustrates legislators and it’s an impasse we must overcome.”