Men got cannabis seeds from ‘hippy’

January 1979

A young Wexford man told a special sitting of Wexford District Court on Friday that he and a friend obtained the seeds for growing cannabis plants at the anti-nuclear power rally at Carnsore Point last year.

When he heard this, Justice Dermot Dunleavy said it proved the allegations that there were drugs at the rally. ‘I had heard a number of contradictions about hippies having drugs at Carnsore, but this case shows they were there,’ the Justice remarked.

Before the court were [NAMES WITHELD], both with an address at [WITHELD] in Wexford. They were charged with cultivating cannabis plants.

Both defendants pleased guilty. [DEFENDANT A] was fined £50 and given a two-month prison sentence, suspended on his entering a bond to keep the peace for one year. [DEFENDANT B] was fined £50.

Inspector Tom Conneely told the court that a sergeant and three Gardaí searched the men’s house and garden, which is located not far from the Garda barracks. In the garden, they found eight cannabis plants growing, and took possession of them.

The men admitted growing the plants. Inspector Conneely said the men admitted to plucking some of the leaves and smoking them.

[DEFENDANT A] said that he had grown eight plants to a height of about 18 inches. He was only experimenting with them, he said. He was not going to touch drugs any more.

[DEFENDANT B] said he had got the seeds from a Dublin man at the rally in Carnsore last year, and they grew them as an experiment. He also said he was not going to get involved in drugs again.

Justice Dunleavy told the two men that growing drugs would be treated as a very serious criminal offence in his court and would be dealt with by imprisonment and heavy fines. This had to be done to deter young people, he remarked.