To reward or to punish?

Must be getting thin skinned. Was in court last week. Accompanied a bloke I've mentored for 30 years. Yes - 30 years!

Anyway, a few months ago he was pinched for having a tiny amount of "grass" in a cigarette packet in his car.

He'd used all drugs ever invented for 30 years. Drug-free, of own choice, for five years. He works for my least known unit of social activism, Futile Care, and hooks up with the occasional down and out who seems to be now where my man was for so long.

I think he's learned HOPE over the past 30 years.

Anyhow, to make a short story long, a previous acquaintance, jumps into his car, stopped at the lights. Nothing unusual there. My man has been in and out of cars, driven and been driven, for 30 years, usually to go around in ever decreasing circles until...

"Give us a lift to St. Kilda?" Agent Mulder's family address is St. Kilda. He's going on his daily, no! twice daily visit to his mother.

As drug practitioner jumps out at desired destination : "Hey, Mulder, there's a 'smoke' in the packet for you."

The rest, dear reader, is history. We end up in magistrates court. I've loved courts ever since I saw "Justice for All".

I hire a professional to "talk the talk". After all, "possession", no matter by accident or design, is unlawful. We hire a professional to ask the magistrate to exercise discretion, pursue justice with a nod of respect to "the law".

Nah! I don't think any of the professionals in court that day knew there were "others" present.  The magistrate had his computer in front of him to speed up the exercise not of justice ('cos that takes longer - to watch the scales move up and down) but of the blind law.

My man, at this miraculous stage of his life, needed to hear reassurance and a caution about previous acquaintances. That could have helped, especially coming from the chief professional in the room.

All the other professionals would've taken note. Decency would have dazzled the sad, confused courtroom. Courts should reward as well as punish. I've been there when its happened - twice in 47 years.

The names of people involved in this mini-saga are withheld for personal security reasons.

What about Ben Pappas? Found dead in the Melbourne Dockland waters. Very talented at 15 years of age as internationally acclaimed skateboarder.

Sucked in by environment, resorted to drugs to heal the fame. Pinched. Sentenced. Passport taken for 5 years. "Dream shattered", says friend. No more overseas. No more field of dreams. No more Ben Pappas.

Magistrate ruled no passport as punishment. Turned into capital punishment.

Magistrates, all legal professionals, let's fight for the rule of law as the humble servant of "justice for all".