Judge rules 900 cannabis plants for personal use!

[Guest Urbanhog]

The Cairns Post

Edition 1WED 27 NOV 2002, Page 001

 

Judge rules 900 cannabis plants for personal use

- That's a lot of pot!

 

A MAN who grew more than 900 cannabis plants on his Mena Creek property, southwest of Innisfail, successfully argued in the Cairns Supreme Court yesterday the drugs were for his personal use.

 

Despite expert evidence from a drug squad detective saying there would have been no sense in anyone growing such a large crop for personal use, Justice Stanley Jones accepted the evidence of Russell Gordon Holt, 42, when sentencing.

 

Justice Jones convicted Holt and sentenced him to 200 hours community service, saying he accepted Holt was telling the truth about the cannabis being for personal use.

 

"The circumstances of seed-lings, small plants and a crop of 263 mature plants, of course, gave rise to a high index of suspicion that you were in the business (of selling cannabis)," he said.

 

"It is most unusual that someone who intended to grow for personal use . . . would expose themselves to the risk of coming before the Supreme Court by growing such a large number of plants.

 

"I don't find you've engaged in commercial activity."

 

Holt, who pleaded guilty to producing and two counts of possessing drugs, gave evidence yesterday of how he grew the large number of plants, found in three separate locations at his property, to give himself enough marijuana to smoke over a 12-month period.

 

Holt said he opposed the sale of marijuana.

 

"I have a strong moral feeling regarding the sale of cannabis," he said.

 

"I think it is morally abhorrent. It interferes with other people's lives when it leaves you. Cannabis to me is something that is intensely private and I've never involved anyone else in it in any way."

 

Holt said the plants he was growing were a hybrid, dwarf variety and did not yield the same amount of the drug as a normal cannabis plant.

 

Moreover, he only expected to be able to harvest half of the crop because he had not separated male and female plants.

 

In addition, 216 seedlings found near his house were not going to be harvested because he did not have enough crop room, Holt told the court.

 

He expected to gain a maximum of 1.8-2kg of the drug.

 

Detective Sergeant Mick Dowie said any person with any experience in growing cannabis would only usually grow a small number of plants for their personal use.

"There would be no use in harvesting a whole crop," Sgt Dowie said.

 

The court was told Holt had 916 marijuana plants, ranging from seedlings through to 150cm in height, growing in three different areas, and at three different stages of growth, which were found during a police search on May 16.

 

A small amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis resin commonly known as hash) also was found.

 

Ms Pearson reiterated previous submissions that Holt was an active member of the Mena Creek community.

 

He was a member of the rural fire brigade and also had taken over full-time care of his 88-year-old father-in-law.

 

Holt also had a humble home and car and did not have any of the trimmings normally associated with people involved in drug dealing, she said.

 

Holt had ceased his 150g a month marijuana habit since being arrested, the court was told.

 

SOURCE: The Carins Post.

 

Mena Creek is a nice green spot, plenty of rainfalls, and lots of tropical forest with similar green colour as marijuana for great hiding in the rainforest.

 

As I used to live up Innisfail for almost 8-9 months working on banana plantations before settled in SE QLD.

 

Urbanhog