|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: COURT: Grower 'aiming to corner drug market'
Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Thursday 26 Jun 2003 A CITY man grew a crop of about 90 cannabis plants in the hope he would corner the market if the drug was legalised, a court heard. Richard Clark (56) told jurors at Peterborough Crown Court he thought the Government would decriminalise cannabis in April this year and was growing the plants to stock an Amsterdam-style "coffee shop" if they did so. Clark, of Holcroft, Orton Malborne, was arrested on November 5, after police discovered plants and growing equipment at his home and a warehouse he was leasing. Clark pleaded guilty to two counts of cultivating the plants, but denied two charges of intending to supply the drug to other people. Carl Fender, prosecuting, said police raided an outbuilding, leased by Clark, in Etton, near Peterborough, following a tip-off from a member of the public. Officers found cannabis plants and a chamber fully equipped to grow a large quantity of the drug. He said: "There was equipment there plainly to be used for the growing process: lights, canisters of growing agents, timing switches and a generator." Police later visited Clark's home and found further plants in a lean-to next to the garage. Mr Fender added: "There had been a considerable financial outlay by Mr Clark, and considerable knowledge and planning about the project." The court heard Clark thought the drug would be made legal, and he had grown the cannabis because he was looking ahead at the business opportunities Hugh Vass, defending, said that Clark had used cannabis to ease the pain of a back injury he had sustained at work. And he told the court that because Clark did not want to associate himself with drug dealers, he took to growing his own. Mr Vass said: "Mr Clark had a keen interest in gardening and growing plants. He had planned to turn the warehouse into a Mediterranean garden centre." The trial continues. Passion for exotic plants THE court heard how Richard Clark had a passion for gardening and cultivating exotic plants. After success with orchids, Clark used the seeds from a bag of marijuana he had purchased to try to grow them. He said: "I had disaster after disaster for 18 months, then I got to know the plant really well and started to get results." The court heard that, after a visit to Amsterdam, Clark planned to set up his own shop if the drug was decriminalised and set his sights on growing the best marijuana plants he could. He said: "I was after winning the Amsterdam Cup. It's a growers cup that looks like the world cup, and is awarded for the best plant grown."
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!