MP's drugs apology

[boulder]

August 31, 2003

 

TERRITORY MP Marion Scrymgour will not stand down as the head of the Government's Substance Abuse Committee after her son was convicted of dealing drugs last week.

 

Ms Scrymgour told the Sunday Territorian yesterday her "determination to make a difference" had increased after her 22-year-old son, Richard Maurice Daiyi, was given a four-month suspended jail sentence for possessing cannabis, possessing a traffickable quantity of cannabis and unlawfully supplying cannabis.

 

Daiyi was arrested in the community of Wadeye, southwest of Darwin, on August 13.

 

"In my capacity as a parent I want to apologise to all the remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory which are trying to get rid of cannabis and its associated health and social problems," Ms Scrymgour, the Member for Arafura, said yesterday.

 

"In particular I want to apologise to the community of Wadeye. There is a serious crisis affecting many remote Aboriginal communities in the Territory.

 

"It is a crisis resulting from the introduction into those communities of large and increasing quantities of high THC-content, hydroponically-grown cannabis, and the excessive consumption of such cannabis by increasing numbers of people -- in particular by young teens and children.

 

"I have given serious consideration to resigning as Chair of the Substance Abuse Committee.

 

"(But) I have decided that I will not take that step.

 

"I have not intervened or attempted to intervene in any way in my son's passage through the criminal justice system that resulted in his being convicted and sentenced. As far as I am concerned, any person who breaks the law in this way -- whether they are my friends, members of my extended family, or even my son -- deserves to be punished in accordance with the laws that are in place for that purpose.

 

"My son has now been duly punished. If he were to be so stupid as to re-offend he could expect to go to prison, and I would have no compunction in endorsing that outcome."

 

Ms Scrymgour said she felt a sense of frustration and failure as a parent.

 

"Like most mothers, I don't claim to have been a perfect parent, and the process of bringing up my children has had its ups and downs. But I have tried my best, and I have been proud of achievements that each of my three children has managed to accomplish at different times in their respective lives."

 

Northern Territory News