Justin Andrew Eeles, 52, avoided a stint behind bars on Friday, when magistrate James Lawton instead sentenced him to a 12-month intensive correction order.

The wall finisher, of Deakin, had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of drug trafficking.

Documents tendered to the ACT Magistrates Court show police were waiting for him at the Canberra Railway Station when he arrived on a train from Sydney in April.

Eeles told officers the item they were looking for was in an outer pocket of his backpack, but he did not elaborate on what it was.

When police searched the area he had referred to, they found a bag of cocaine that weighed about 55 grams.

At the time, ACT Policing issued a media release that said the drugs were estimated to be worth nearly $20,000 on the street.

In court on Friday afternoon, however, prosecutor James Melloy said intelligence suggested that much cocaine could fetch anything between $16,500 and $33,000.

Mr Melloy said Eeles had a criminal history that spanned about 30 years and showed repeated drug and alcohol-related offending.

Despite having had "a substantial cocaine habit" for many years, Mr Melloy added, Eeles had never attempted rehabilitation.

He also said Eeles "continued to drink at problematic levels" despite apparently now being abstinent from illicit drugs.

While Mr Melloy conceded a community-based sentence was "within range" in this case, he noted that those who trafficked in illegal substances helped keep the drug trade alive for young people to enter into.

Eeles' lawyer, Jacob Robertson, told the court his client had engaged psychological help in relation to his substance abuse issues.

Mr Robertson said the 52-year-old's addiction issues had been brought on by a major depressive disorder, which Eeles now acknowledged he had spent decades trying to mask with large amounts of drugs and alcohol.

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The lawyer added that he had been instructed Eeles had purchased the drugs in question for $12,000.

In sentencing, Mr Lawton said it appeared Eeles had bought the cocaine "in bulk" to obtain a discount for his own use.

Material before the court showed the man conceded he was going to on-sell some of it to his "close circle of friends", but there was no suggestion he was dealing the substance to the wider public in search of a profit.

Mr Lawton warned the 52-year-old offender he was "on a knife's edge" and "at a turning point", with time behind bars looming in the event of further offending.

On this occasion, however, Mr Lawton found it was appropriate to instead impose the intensive correction order, which involves strict supervision and which can be cancelled in the event conditions are breached.

The magistrate told Eeles to take advantage of this sentence, describing it is the best opportunity he would get to show himself, the community and the court that he was committed to changing his ways.

"If you muck up, you go to jail," Mr Lawton told him.

"Simple as that."

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