Man used drugs for ‘social networking’

A MIDDLE-AGED man in the catering business had a sideline in growing cannabis at home in order to make cannabis cookies, butter, alternative pizzas and wine for friends.

Yesterday he was given a three-year suspended jail sentence for the offence as Judge Patrick J Moran commented: “You were not really a drug dealer, you were doing it from a social networking point of view, if that is the right phrase.”

David Flynn, 45, of The Thatch, Glantane, Co Cork, was sentenced for having the cannabis for supply on January 23 and cultivating cannabis without a licence.

Detective Sergeant Michael Corbett said gardaí acting on confidential information obtained a warrant to search Flynn’s home and when they arrived the accused showed them where he grew the drug.

Det Sgt Corbett said the defendant was co-operative and had never come to the attention of gardaí before.

Donal O’Sullivan, defence barrister, said Flynn had a fairly stable life before this incident but that he his wife were separating at the time.

He had a pizza-making business at one time and another one of the several jobs he did over the years was the operation of a chip-van.

The detective accepted that the cannabis grown by the accused and used to make various foods and wine was supplied to friends and there was no question of receiving payment for them.

Instead, he would be brought to a friend’s house for a meal or there would be some exchange. Judge Moran said after hearing the evidence that the cannabis appeared to be supplied on a kind of bartering system.

Mr O’Sullivan said: “No tick lists or money, none of the paraphernalia of a drug dealer were found in the house. I don’t think he would be categorised as a drug dealer in the way in which they would normally come before the courts.

“He comes from an exemplary background. Everyone who ever had anything to do with him speaks highly of him. This case has been a salutary lesson for him. He has been a productive member of society,” Mr O’Sullivan said.