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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Man set up Stourport'cannabis factory
Kidderminster Shuttle Wednesday 13 Jul 2011 Michael Holder bought plants and growing equipment and looked up the most efficient way to grow cannabis on the internet, Worcester Crown Court heard. Mr Makkan Shoker, prosecuting, said Holder rented a flat at White Lion Court, Lion Hill, Stourport, in February last year and in April he rented two more rooms in the cellar. Police became suspicious of unusual activities at the building, he said, and when they went to investigate, they smelt cannabis. On gaining entry into the building, they found 34 plants in the cellar with "reasonably sophisticated" growing equipment, including artificial lighting, ducting, extractor fans and a temperature gauge. In the flat above, they found a further 34 plants in a growing tent and 70 cuttings in propagator trays. They also found electricity had been diverted at an estimated value of £1,200. Holder pleaded guilty to a charge of producing cannabis and also to abstracting electricity. Mr Shoker said the "cannabis factory" was ready to produce a crop of flowers - used to make the powerful "skunk" variety of the drug and could have a had a yield with a total estimated street value of up to £45,000. But, he said, Holder had no client base and had only intended to make a small amount of money by selling any he had left over to friends. He said Holder used on average an ounce of the drug a week and the crop could have supplied him for between four and five years. Cathlyn Orchard, defending, said Holder, a father of two, had used the drug for a number of years to combat the pain of a persistent back problem. She said he had been under financial pressure since the collapse of his building business and was finding it difficult to afford the amount of cannabs he needed. She said he had not made any money from growing the plants. Judge Robert Juckes said it was not a commercial operation but the "skunk" variety of the drug was very powerful and potentially dangerous to users. He ordered the destruction ot the plants and the equipment and gave Holder a six months sentence for abstracting electricity to run concurrently with the 15 months on the cannabis charge. http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/9135019.Man_set_up_Stourport__cannabis_factory_/
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