At the height of his illicit enterprise, Feenan, now 22, was on the police radar as being one of the dealers flooding the Newcastle nightclub scene with MDMA, but gave evidence on Thursday that his supply network extended only to about 15 or 20 friends, a claim the prosecution conceded it could not refute.

Unemployed and hopelessly addicted to drugs, he was pulled over for a random breath test at New Lambton in the early hours of November 16 last year and police - acting on intelligence that Feenan was involved in supplying drugs at Newcastle clubs - searched his car, and later his home, where they would ultimately find more than 230 grams of MDMA and $18,600 in cash.

Feenan, who pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and dealing with the proceeds of crime, gave evidence in Newcastle District Court on Thursday, saying he supplied drugs to support his addiction and the money went back into the operation to continue the foredoomed cycle of using and dealing.

"The money didn't matter to me," Feenan said from jail. "I felt like I was someone, that was the attraction to it. "The people around me, they thought I was someone and I thought they were my friends."

Judge Jennifer English said Feenan's operation was "clearly profitable" and found he was receiving a financial reward as well as funding his own habit.

Feenan's barrister Rob Hussey submitted the nine months he had already served should constitute the majority of any jail term, but Judge English disagreed and jailed Feenan for a maximum of three years and nine months, with a non-parole period of two years.

He will be eligible for parole in November, 2021.