Drug dealer ordered to write anti-drugs essay

A drug dealer has been ordered to write a 5,000-word essay as his punishment.

Terry Bennett, 32, admitted possessing around 2lb of the drug and as a result Judge Julian Lambert told him to write an essay because he was unable to do community work due to a shoulder injury.

He said: "It was a shock to be given such an unusual punishment. It’s been ages since I last wrote an essay.

“I asked the judge if I could write a balanced argument for and against cannabis, but he said that since it’s illegal, I should only write about the bad things.

“I’m just going to write about certain dangers caused by cannabis that people might not necessarily know.”

He was initially handed a one-year suspended jail sentence with 240 hours of unpaid work by Bristol crown court but the judge was then told about his injury.