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Janine Owen moved to Albury from Western Australia to be close to her two young kids, but a serious drug addiction has her languishing in jail.
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Owen has now taken another step on the path to rehabilitation by pleading guilty to two counts of supplying a prohibited drug.
She was clearly suffering from the impact of her addiction when she first appeared in Albury Local Court in early September.
Owen’s hair was greasy and unruly, she was dirty and she appeared to have some difficulty following proceedings.
But this week the impact of going clean from her addiction while in jail was obvious when she appeared in court via a video link.
Owen, 25, answered in a clear, strong voice when magistrate Tony Murray asked for her plea.
One of her guilty pleas relates to her being found with 1.79 grams of MDMA, or ecstacy, and the other to 4.55 grams of methamphetamine.
Owen had been in the process of entering a residential rehabilitation program to address her drug addiction issues when arrested.
Mr Murray was told how police saw Owen walking south on Mate Street in North Albury on September 3 about 8.20pm.
The police knew she had been in possession of illicit drugs about five days before and so made the decision to stop her for a search.
In her handbag they found a glass pipe used for smoking “ice”, or methamphetamine, containing a brown residue.
But Owen denied it was hers – it belonged to “a friend.”
The search continued, resulting in police finding a plastic resealable bag – containing a white crystalline substance – in the left side of her bra.
A plastic container with eight MDMA tablets was found in the right side of her bra.
Once again, Owen said the drugs did not belong to her and denied knowledge of text messages on her mobile phone related to supplying drugs.
Owen was further remanded in custody to be sentenced in the District Court next month.