AROUND the time he became involved in a major Hunter drug supply syndicate and agreed to transport 50 litres of industrial solvent Butanediol, an alternative to party drug Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB), Les Mason was consuming so many recreational and prescription drugs that it would have "killed a normal person".
A "normal person" being someone without Mason's level of tolerance and who doesn't stand at 203 centimetres and weigh 160 kilograms.
Mason, now 41, was "smashing the scripts" and using as much Xanax, Tramadol, Stilnox, Oxycontin and cocaine as he could get his hands on, he told a sentence hearing in Newcastle District Court on Friday.
And then on October 10, 2018, while still serving an intensive corrections order for supplying 58 grams of cocaine, a sentence he acknowledged on Friday that he was "lucky" to have received, Mason collected 50 litres of Butanediol from a house at Cameron Park, loaded it into the boot of his car and drove it a short distance to a shopping centre where he supplied it to an unknown man.
Police say the substance was then driven to Sydney and delivered to a dealer who supplies large quantities of GHB.
A controlled substance, Butanediol is legitimately used as a cleaning agent but when it is ingested by users their livers turn the Butanediol into GHB, an illicit recreational drug which has gained popularity.
There have been a total of 74 GHB-related deaths since 2000, according to the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.
Mason gave evidence on Friday that he had the drug in his car for "max 10 minutes" and he was motivated by desperation for some "easy money". He said he was to be paid between $12,000 and $14,000.
The 50 litres cost the head of the syndicate, Matthew Pearce, a former personal trainer who had links to the Newcastle Knights, $12,000 to import and was supplied to the Sydney connection for $50,000.
But when the Sydney man failed to come up with the cash and quickly fell off the radar, Mason and Pearce had a falling out, each believing the other owed them money, and ceased doing business together. Mason, who pleaded guilty to supplying more than 12 times the threshold for a large commercial quantity of Butanediol, a charge which carries a maximum of life imprisonment, will be sentenced next week.
