‘DIDN’T WANT TO BUY OFF DEALERS’

A North Louth man who was found to be growing cannabis in grow tents at home was cultivating it to ‘self medicate’ for depression and ‘didn’t want to buy off drug dealers’, the district court heard last week.

Sean Morris, (27), Brentwood, Ballyoonan, Omeath, admitted having eight plants, which Gardai estimated to be worth €6,400.

Judge Flann Brennan was told how Gardai executed a search warrant at the property on September 1 2015 and discovered two grow tents in the middle of the hallway.

Morris, who was the only person in the property, was charged with having cannabis for sale or supply. He has no previous convictions.

Barrister Sarah Jane Judge said her client is currently unemployed but has ‘a strong work history’.

A number of references were handed into the judge on Morris’s behalf and the barrister added that he had previously worked as a barman in Galway and had also worked in America.

Ms Judge said this incident was borne out of ‘extreme stupidity’ as Morris suffers from depression and severe anxiety and ‘ by some strange reasoning, rather than buying cannabis off drug dealers, he was going to grow it himself ’.

Mr Judge said: ‘Anyone reasonable would see the stupidity of that’. In addition, the barrister said Morris’s father was in court and was ‘absolutely mortified’ by what was going on.

Ms Judge explained her client’s parents had separated while he was in the USA and his mother is unwell. He returned to help his dad raise the two other children and with his business during the recession. Morris ‘shows great capability in the work environment’, Ms Judge said but he would be barred from travelling abroad again if a drug conviction was on his record.

Judge Brennan said he wanted to see a probation report before finalising the case and adjourned the matter to September 16.