Alexander Douglas Cameron, 28, appeared via audio-visual link in the ACT Magistrates Court charged with trafficking in a controlled drug other than cannabis.

He has not pleaded to the charge and was also scheduled to face the same magistrate for sentencing for four driving offences, including drug and dangerous driving.

A prosecution document states police used search warrants and undertook surveillance of Cameron on Saturday night in Franklin.

Officers approached him as he exited a ride-sharing vehicle before searching him and found what they allege to be a clip-seal bag containing a crystalline substance.

A presumptive test indicated it to be methylamphetamine.

Police also found what they allege to be a set of digital scales, a glass smoking pipe and a brass cylinder containing an unknown substance.

The suspected methylamphetamine was later weighed and was about 40.5g, including packaging.

In court, duty defence lawyer Elizabeth West tendered letters from his family and applied for bail on his behalf.

Ms West said her client was suffering from anxiety and depression and had a medical appointment this week to address those health matters.

She said he was set to start part-time work on Tuesday as a labourer, specifically in laying telecommunication wires, and that protective factors included his "significant family support".

They would report any breaches to "keep him accountable", the court heard.

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Ms West said the protective factors pointed "to a man who is trying to rehabilitate himself" and they would reduce the likelihood of him being charged with more offences.

Ms West also disputed the 40.5g in the prosecution document, saying the weight also included the packaging and that the net weight still needed to be determined.

Prosecutor Julia Churchill opposed bail based on the likelihood of Cameron being charged with further offences.

Ms Churchill said the defendant being on bail at the time of the latest alleged offending "hasn't deterred him" and his criminal history and the latest charge showed an escalation.

Magistrate Peter Morrison decided in favour of the prosecution, saying the alleged drug offending involved a "very substantial amount".

Mr Morrison said the difficulty was Cameron's "history of failing to comply with court orders in terms of good behaviour orders".

"This alleged offending has been committed while he was on bail for other offences ... including driving with a prescribed drug in his oral fluid," he said.

Mr Morrison said Cameron "clearly has a history of use of prescribed drugs" and his bail application needed to "be a triumph of hope over experience, would it not"?

"To think that something written on a piece of paper by way of a bail condition is going to on this occasion influence his behaviour when that background indicates he hasn't in the past," he said.

"The totality of those circumstances persuaded me that the prosecution concerns are made out."

Mr Morrison set May 24 for when Cameron, remanded in custody, is set to face court again.

He also moved the defendant's sentencing of his driving offences, which occurred last October, to the same date.

In a statement, ACT Policing said the search warrants were executed as part of an ongoing investigation into drug distribution in the ACT and surrounding region.

Anyone with information about the manufacture, distribution and sale of illicit drugs in the ACT is urged to contact Crime Stoppers ACT on 1800 333 000. Information can be provided anonymously.

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