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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Dealer said cannabis was for hospital drugs ring
The Press & Journal, Aberdeen
Tuesday 06 Feb 2007 A DRUG dealer who claimed he formed a consortium with his fellow-patients in hospital to buy cannabis was jailed for three months yesterday. Stuart Duncan claimed he smoked 40 joints a day - nearly 15,000 each year - to relieve the pain in his leg. The, 43-year-old claimed he was only dealing cannabis to other hospital patients who wanted to use it for pain relief. But Sheriff Robert McCreadie noted Duncan had been jailed for drugs offences in 1991 and locked him up again. Duncan, from Coupar Angus, Perthshire, said he and other patients formed a network to bulk-buy the drug- and then shared it among themselves. He previously told Perth Sheriff Court he regularly smoked 40 joints a day to numb the pain he suffered from a long-term leg problem. Fiscal depute Keith Robertson told the court Duncan was found with bars of the drug with a street value of 1,430 pounds. Police had been tipped off that he was dealing. When they raided Duncan's home, they discovered drugs paraphernalia and 430 pounds in cash. He later claimed he smoked so much cannabis that it would have cost around 50 pounds a day to fund his habit. However, unemployed Duncan was unable to provide any evidence of legitimate income beyond the 130 pounds a week he claims in state benefits. Bulk-buy Solicitor lan Houston, defending, said: "He bought for others when he was buying for himself. Cannabis was becoming more difficult to come by, so he and his friends were taking turns and dividing it up ac cording to the needs of the individuals." Mr Houston told the court that Duncan Was prescribed dihydrocodeine to counter peripheral vascular disease, which affects blood vessels other than the heart and brain. "He suffers significant and continuous pain in his leg and from past experience going back years he knows dihydrocodeine tablets are quite strongly addictive" he said. "He would start on a certain dosage but after a time his body would build up a tolerance and he would have to increase the dosage to have the same effect. "He felt the use of cannabis relieved the pain but did not require him to take ever increasing doses of cannabis." Duncan, of Strathmore Avenue, admitted supplying cannabis resin from his home between May 1 and July 26 last year. "He claimed a group of disabled friends clubbed together to bulk-buy," Sheriff McCreadie said. "It was a considerable amount of cannabis for personal use and for a. few friends." The sheriff also confiscated the 430 pounds found at Duncan's home during the police raid.
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