Drugs are part of the culture on a council estate, a court was told.

Solicitor Graham Davies said it was difficult to escape drugs in Barton, Oxford.

Mr Davies, defending a man jailed for nine months for drug dealing, told Oxford Crown Court: "It is difficult to escape at a certain age the use of drugs on the Barton estate.

"It is in their age group. It is something they have almost been brought up with.

"One looks at people on that estate and it is almost part of their culture, it's part of their life."

He added that Barry Horwood, who was found with cannabis worth £1,600 at his home, had only supplied drugs to close friends.

Horwood was told by the judge that he was following a "dreadful pattern" ending in addiction to hard drugs.

Judge David Morton Jack told the 23-year-old: "Your case, sadly - and you probably know this as well as I do - follows a very sad and common pattern. He said Horwood, of Fettiplace Road, Barton, was in danger of ending up hooked on hard drugs like heroin.

He jailed him for nine months, saying the message had to go out that drug dealers would go to prison.

Horwood, who had a previous drug conviction, was found guilty by a jury of possessing cannabis with intent to supply and of possession.

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