Disqualified motorist caught driving in Limerick warned he \u2018needs to wake up\u2019<\/a><\/p>\nMr Young made several admissions when interviewed by garda\u00ed. He stated he was growing the cannabis for personal use as it helps him deal with his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “It is the only thing that helps me,\u201d he stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked by Garda Eoin Sheahan how he learned to grow cannabis plants, Mr Young said: \u201cOn the internet, like YouTube.\u201d He said it made sense to grow cannabis as he smokes on average between 6-7 grams daily. This translates to about one ounce per week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Young said growing it costs him about \u20ac30 a week in electric bills whereas if he were to purchase from a drug dealer, it would cost a lot more. He claimed the seeds found growing on the day of the search would have lasted until the next growth cycle – a period of between five and six months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Young insisted he is not a drug dealer: \u201cI don\u2019t sell cannabis, I grow cannabis,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
However, rejecting this assertion, Inspector Padraig Sutton said garda\u00ed believe the quantity of cannabis seized was too much to be just for personal use.<\/p>\n
Mr Young counteracted this saying he \u201cneeds it\u201d for his PTSD as well as other mental health issues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The defendant’s solicitor John Herbert confirmed his client’s PTSD diagnosis dates back nearly a decade and came after he was involved in two road accidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
READ ALSO |\u00a0<\/p>\n
Judge Peter White was told Mr Young gave garda\u00ed his phone following their arrival at this home and that and no messages suggesting the sale or supply of cannabis were found.<\/p>\n
Garda Sheahan also confirmed that no paraphernalia, such as cash, plastic bags or a ‘tick list’, which are typically associated in drug dealing, were located and there was no sign of people calling to the defendant’s home ‘at strange hours’ to buy drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before he started using cannabis, Mr Young said he couldn\u2019t get out of bed and that it helped him. He told garda\u00ed he accepts it’s \u201chard to understand.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He worked in construction before his diagnosis and took prescribed medication which didn\u2019t help. Mr Herbert said it had the effect of a tranquiliser and that cannabis is an \u201ceasy\u201d way for his client to deal with the symptoms he faces as a result of his mental health struggles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Judge White said even though the value of the drugs found \u201cis high,\u201d he has a “sliver of doubt” regarding the Section 15 sale or supply charge. He added he was obliged to give the benefit of any doubt to the defendant and he dismissed the charge.<\/p>\n
Fines totalling \u20ac650 were imposed and the judge formally directed the destruction of the drugs seized.<\/p>\n
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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A LIMERICK man has been fined following the discovery of nearly \u20ac4,000 worth of cannabis in the attic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,5721,61,60,36769,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-309127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-district-court","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-limerick-courthouse","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}