‘Natural therapist’ guilty of growing 22 cannabis plants at his home

A Blackwater man who described himself as a natural therapist pleaded guilty to growing 22 cannabis plants at his home and cited the bible in his defence.

Gerry Morrissey (55) made the case that he should be allowed to cultivate and to use the drug to help him deal with the aftermath of an accident

Garda Michael Kelly discovered the plants in various stages of maturity at Crosshue in Blackwater on June 12, 2015.

It was estimated that they were worth a combined total of €2,536.

At the District Court sitting in Gorey, Morrissey explained that he was left with a spinal injury after an accident which occurred in 2013.

His situation was complicated, he explained, by a chronic stomach complaint which meant that he could not take medication to deal with the pain he was suffering.

He turned to cannabis as an alternative but did not trust the drug supplied on the open market, worried that it might be adulterated with substances such as horse tranquilisers.

He read a quotation from the bible to support the right he claimed to grow his own cannabis to combat his chronic pain.

Morrissey was concerned that legislation allowing medical use of cannabis had been held up in the Dáil.

Judge Gerard Haughton responded that he had to administer the law as it is and adjourned the matter until October for a probation report.

However, the judge indicated that it might be possible to find a way of avoiding a conviction in the case.