Scotland is in lockdown. Shops are closing and newspaper sales are falling fast. We're not exaggerating when we say that the future of the Clydebank Post is under threat.

Please consider supporting the Post in whatever way you can – by paying just 85p for a copy of the paper, when you're shopping for essential supplies for yourself and others, or by subscribing to our e-edition here.

Thanks – and stay safe.

A MAN who was found with thousands of pounds worth of drugs after emergency services rushed to a 999 call in Clydebank last year has been spared prison.

Edward Johnstone’s stash of cannabis was found when police and ambulance personnel noticed a strong smell of the drug after they responded to a report of an unresponsive woman at the Lennox View property on September 19, last year.

Paramedics pronounced the woman dead, though a court hearing last week was told that her death was not believed to be related to the drug find at the flat.

Johnstone, of Cumbrae Crescent South, Dumbarton, was sentenced at Dumbarton Sheriff Court after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge of possession with intent to supply at the property in Clydebank.

Alasdair Millar, prosecuting, told a hearing last month that the value of the drug was somewhere between £2,000 and £4,410, depending on how it was sub-divided, and that a tick list and other paraphernalia had also been found.

That hearing was also told that Johnstone had failed to keep two appointments with a social worker to have a background report prepared prior to sentencing.

But he was finally sentenced on March 20 after heeding a sheriff’s warning that he would be locked up if he missed any more appointments.

Mr Millar told the hearing: “441 grams of herbal cannabis were found. The locus was the address of the female who was unresponsive, and who thereafter was pronounced dead.”

David Gallagher, defending, said: “He accepts responsibility for this offence.

“He has told me the matter was a joint enterprise, but he is adamant that he fully accepts that what he did is what he has pleaded guilty to.

“He puts this down to a very idiotic decision, and I would tend to agree with him on that.”

Mr Gallagher said Johnstone’s criminal record included some substantial gaps in offending, and told the court his client had not been in trouble between 2017 and the commission of the drugs offence.

Mr Gallagher also said the woman who died was “a very close friend” and said the incident, and her death, had served as “a wake-up call” to his client.

He said Johnstone was trying to gain employment in the construction industry in an effort “to contribute to society”.

Click here for all the latest news from Clydebank and the surrounding areas

Sheriff Frances McCartney placed Johnstone on a community payback order which will see him supervised by a social worker until September 2021.

He was also ordered to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work within 10 months, and was instructed to attend alcohol, drug or mental health counselling, as instructed by his supervisor.

The order will be reviewed on June 22.