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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Ireland: Farmer Wins Cannabis Appeal
The Ballyhoo Examiner
Thursday 04 Dec 2003 THERE were scenes of jubilation outside Ballyhoo District Court yesterday after a local farmer won his appeal against a suspended jail sentence for feeding his cattle a controlled substance. Laurence Patrick Furlong from Tullycross had previously admitted that he had bought a large canvas bag containing hemp ropes from a member of Ballyhoo Amateur Drama Society. He had received the sentence last October. Ms Dymphna Snagge said the case had made international headlines 'due to the severity of the penalties imposed by the court and the sheer and utter senselessness of the charges proferred'. She said her client had been fully and totally vindicated. Ms Snagge had told the court earlier that this was a clear-cut case. Under the Misuse Of Drugs (Amendment No 1) Regulations, 1999, certain inspectors in the Department of Agriculture, who were engaged in their official capacity as such, did have the authority and wherewithal to grow cannabis (hemp) for the purpose of crop analysis under an EU regulation, namely No 1164/89 of 28 April 1989, which in turn laid down detailed rules for the aid for growing fibre flax and hemp, she said. Judge Oscar Nugent, presiding, asked at this point whether Mr Furlong was a Department of Agriculture official. Ms Snagge said he wasn't, but neither was he growing the plants. Judge asked her to get to her point. Ms Snagge said her point was going to be that while cannabis sativa plants were illegal, hemp fibre was not. She said Mr Furlong had hired the services of a private investigator, a Mr Robert O'Shea, who had thoroughly investigated whether hemp rope was at any time or at the time of the charge a controlled substance in any country outside of the Republic of Ireland on the night in question. He had subsequently found that it was not, and that hemp rope was indeed not illegal in Ireland, though it required a licence, which had indeed been obtained by the member of Ballyhoo Amateur Drama Society. In addition, Mr Furlong had been the subject of a major international campaign, much of which had been conducted on the Internet. Judge Nugent said Ms Snagge had presented an indisputable defence, and congratulated her on the 'thorough, extensive and meticulous research' she had undertaken on behalf of her client. He said there was now no case to answer, Mr Furlong did not have to pay the fine and he was free to leave the court.
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