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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Cannabis plant caretaker jailed
BBC News
Monday 07 Jan 2008 A drug dealer has been jailed for four years for turning his rented home in Kinross into a cannabis factory. George Hume, 41, from Edinburgh, had more than 300 cannabis plants at the property in Kinnesswood. At Perth Sheriff Court he admitted growing and supplying the drugs between 29 November 2006 and 15 March 2007. The court heard that he had been acting as a "caretaker" at the property to clear a £4,000 drug debt he had run up because of his cannabis addiction. Police raided the flat after a tip-off. As well as 316 plants growing in pots, they discovered a further 346 empty pots ready to be used in mass producing the drug. Fiscal depute Stuart Richardson said: "To maintain a high temperature in the room the window was covered with thick plastic sheeting and there were high voltage lighting units suspended from the ceiling." The heat in the specially-adapted bedroom was so high - close to 90 degrees - that it would have shown up as a thermal imaging hotspot. Mr Richardson told Perth Sheriff Court that the plants had not been well looked after and that experts believed they had been over-watered. He told the court that the plants could have produced cannabis with a street value of £7,000 - but the figure would have been much higher if they had been healthy. Solicitor Robbie Burnett, defending, said his client - a part-time card shop manager - was addicted to super strong skunk cannabis and had a £40 a day habit. He said he been receiving £80 a week income support at the time and had run up a debt of about £4,000 to pay for his drug habit. Mr Burnett said: "His involvement was that he was the caretaker in the house and had been directed in certain aspects of watering the plants. "He was going to be there for 14 weeks and as a result his debt was going to be cleared. "He has now had a wake-up call and realises the use of cannabis is only ever going to get him into trouble." Sheriff Michael Fletcher noted that Hume had previously been jailed for five years at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2001 for drug offences. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7175307.stm
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