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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Former gardener grew cannabis to ease stress
David Johns icSurreyOnline
Thursday 11 Aug 2005 CANNABIS grown by a man in two greenhouses on a 13th-floor balcony landed him in court on a charge of cultivating a controlled drug. Matthew Robert Cross, 39, admitted the charge when he appeared at Redhill Magistrates' Court on Thursday. Paul McGorry, prosecuting, told the court police were called to Cross's 13th-floor flat at Linden Lea, Stubbs Hill, Dorking, where they found two DIY mini-greenhouses on his balcony. Inside were 12 cannabis plants. Mr McGorry said: "There were also two mirrors being used to light onto the growing plants, and a number of lightbulbs which were turned on. He had fitted up a hydro-ponic system and police found compost and all the equipment for the cultivation of cannabis." When Cross, a former gardener, was arrested he admitted cultivating the plants and said they were being grown for his own use. In trays in his kitchen were 20 seedlings of young cannabis plants. The court learnt that Cross had previous convictions for cultivating cannabis. Phillip Longes, defending, asked the court to give him due credit for his early guilty plea. Mr Longes said Cross had smoked cannabis over a number of years, but after his arrest in 2002 he stopped using the drug. Mr Longes told magistrates: "He began smoking it again last year because he was suffering from stress and depression caused because his wife had been admitted to hospital. It was purely for his own personal use." He said there were only 12 plants and police had commented when they seized them on June 17 that it was very much on an amateurish scale. Mr Longes added: "They were being grown in a couple of greenhouses bought from a garden centre. "This is a man who has had a habit for a number of years and has made an effort to stop the habit, but force of circumstances tempted him to use the drug again." Magistrates remanded Cross on conditional bail until September 7 when he is due to reappear before magistrates to be sentenced.
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