Labour Candidate Admits to Drug Charges

The Labour candidate for the upcoming NSW state election, Edwina Lloyd, has no problem admitting that she was found guilty of a drug charge.

Perhaps even more surprisingly, she believes it is the best thing that happened to her.

So what makes her say this?

Lloyd is a passionate supporter of rehabilitation programs – saying that they are highly effective in turning around the lives of those caught up with drugs and alcohol.

Lloyd does not shy away from telling others about her past.

And it would be hard to think of a more dramatic transformation: from drug user and supplier to lawyer, human rights advocate, mother, and now aspiring politician.

It is also a very powerful and positive story about rehabilitation, and her life is a testament that recovery is certainly achievable.

Since being arrested for drugs, Edwina Lloyd has been able to deal with her mistakes and turn her life around.

She is now a lawyer and hopes to be in state parliament – currently running for the seat of Sydney.

Lloyd was arrested at the age of 30 years for having cocaine.

However, she participated in a drug rehabilitation program, which is where she got off drugs and alcohol and enrolled in a law degree.

By the time she was back in front of the courts six months later, she was a different person.

She pleaded guilty to the charges but the Magistrate, impressed by her progress, gave her a non conviction order, which meant she did not get a criminal record or any penalty for the charge.

She is now a criminal lawyer, and is a passionate human rights advocate. She works helping others to escape drug addictions.

We hear so often about the inescapable drug vortex, so the story of a former habitual user who was able to recover is inspiring.

It also proves that society should not give up on drug users, or stigmatise them, or label them as ‘beyond help’.

Lloyd now aims to “reduce the stigma” and “put a human face to these sorts of problems”, she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Simply punishing people using drugs is rarely the best approach – while Lloyd is glad she was caught, she believes rehabilitation, not retribution, is the way to go.

She hopes to facilitate positive changes in the way that drugs are dealt with by the criminal justice system.

In NSW, the Drug Court Program and the MERIT program are there help people break the cycle of drug use and offending.

The Drug Court Program can apply to very serious drug offences, which are dealt with in a higher court such as the District Court. The Program helps users to recognise the nature and treat the underlying causes of their addictions.

Participants are given counselling, support and treatment, and are regularly tested for drugs. Successful completion of the Program can lead to a significantly more lenient penalty.

The MERIT Program, or “Magistrates Early Referral Into Treatment” Program is administered at the Local Court level and usually lasts for 12 weeks. Like the Drug Court program, participants are given counselling and may be subjected to urinalysis.

Successful completion may even lead to participants avoiding criminal convictions altogether.

Both programs allow users to get the crucial help they need to turn their life around and stay out of the criminal justice system.

So far, Lloyd has received plenty of feedback on her bold decision to go public about her past. And it is certainly better to take the initiative and ‘come clean’ about your past than have the press shred you to pieces at a later time.