Slice of life for judge with tips on baking hash cakes

A JUDGE was given a brief account yesterday of how to bake cannabis cakes.

He was told they were similar to barm bracks and were nice “with a cup of tea”.

A fan at the Rory Gallagher music festival in Ballyshannon admitted having slices of cannabis cake to sell at €4 each.

Judge Kevin Kilrane was told Paraic Brannigan was in possession of 18 slices when gardaí searched a van at Portnason, Ballyshannon, last June 5.

He asked: “Who bakes them or where can we get them?”

Brannigan and his defence solicitor, Gerry McGovern, explained there was a green leaf that provided “a speck” of cannabis in a cake which was baked like a bun.

Mr McGovern agreed with the judge’s assessment that the baking procedure produced something equivalent to a barm brack.

Mr McGovern said: “It’s a sort of a party thing. The content is very, very low. I’m not sure how anybody could get anything out of these cakes except enjoy a cake with a cup of tea.”

The solicitor added: “The defendant is not a drugs dealer or involved in drugs. He is not that kind.”

Ballyshannon District Court heart that 35-year-old Brannigan, a Dundalk native, had lived in Galway for the past year after returning from an eight-year stint in Mexico where he worked in an orphanage.

He told the judge, who heard he had no previous offences, that he was doing a yoga course and had spent a month this year in India.

Judge Kilrane adjourned sentence for backgroundreports until January 6 and Brannigan, of Claremont Park, Rahoon, Galway, was remanded on bail for possession of cannabis for sale and giving a false name.