‘Best dealer’weeded out

A man caught with more than 8 kilograms of cannabis and nearly 100 plants told police he was getting ready to be part of a legal market for the drug.

He also boasted about his weed-growing prowess, but Martin Mcdonald now has a drugs conviction thanks to someone dobbing him in.

He was sentenced in the Levin District Court, sitting in Palmerston North, on Monday to five months’ community detention for cultivating the drug.

Police went to his Levin house after getting a tip off, and discovered two bedrooms and the garage had been set up with lights to help with growing cannabis.

They found 96 plants, seeds, 26 grams of cannabis head and 8kg of cannabis leaf.

They also found a knuckleduster on Mcdonald’s headboard and five cellphones around the house.

He told police he was ‘‘the best cannabis grower in the Horowhenua’’.

He had been researching growing methods and had plans to get a growing licence if the upcoming cannabis referendum legalised the drug.

He had provided cannabis to people and used it himself for pain relief.

Defence lawyer Peter Foster said the knuckleduster was simply an ‘‘item of interest’’, while all but one of the phones were not in use.

There were also no tick lists, plastic bags or tin foil – typical signs of dealing – at the house.

‘‘There was no commerciality to it, but it’s a pretty damn big amount [of cannabis]

Martin Mcdonald had been researching growing methods and had plans to get a growing licence if the upcoming cannabis referendum legalised the drug.

to see,’’ he said.

Judge Jonathan Krebs said that much cannabis would have meant jail 20 or 30 years ago, but there was evidence in earlier judgments of ‘‘shifting public attitude’’.

He was suspicious Mcdonald might have been selling the drug, due to the presence of the weapon, phones and so much cannabis, but said police would have charged him with doing so if they had found evidence.