Drugs at 13, pregnant at 15

YEPPOON’S Melitta Vilciauskas started smoking cannabis when she was 13.

She was expelled from school in year 9 for her involvement in drugs after mixing with the wrong crowd.

From age 14, her mother lost control of her and by 15, she moved out of home to live with her boyfriend.

She fell pregnant and then after her child was born, she became a more serious drug user.

“After her daughter’s birth her involvement with drugs escalated. She started taking speed. She was injecting sometimes three times a week,” the Defence barrister Ross Lo Monaco told the Supreme Court in Rocky yesterday.

But the 20-year-old has since started to turn her life around by making a clean break.

She moved away from the drug culture of Rockhampton to avoid association with the drug users, she has full-time care of her daughter and has a part-time job.

Melitta Lee Vilciauskas pleaded guilty yesterday to the possession and production of dangerous drugs and the possession of cooking implements used in connection with the production of drugs.

In August 2008, police conducted a search warrant at Vilciauskas’ North Rockhampton unit.

A drug lab was uncovered, including glassware, a pressure cooker, a portable glass stove, a small amount of cannabis and methamphetamines among other drug-related items.

Vilciauskas was at home with a man who was in prison last year for similar drug offences.

Crown Prosecutor Richard Pointing said although they couldn’t determine a commercial element, it was suspicious.

Mr Lo Monaco said Vilciauskas was never personally involved in the production or operation of the drug lab.

“This group of drug users abused her immaturity and dumped the drug stuff at her place,” Mr Lo Monaco said. Justice Duncan McMeekin placed Vilciauskas on a two-year probation order and ordered her to perform 120 hours of unpaid community service.