Gardaí called to resolve drugs row

A 21-year-old Drogheda man, who got involved in a heated argument with a friend over a bag of cannabis worth just €10, took the rather bizarre step of ringing the gardaí and asking them to come round to his house to try and resolve the dispute.

As a result, the caller, John Reid, from Mary St, found himself before the court in the Louth town last Friday.

But even though it was Friday the 13th, Reid had a stroke of good fortune when Judge Flann Brennan put the case back to allow for a probation report on the defendant.

Inspector Brendan Cadden said that on May 22 last year, at just after midnight, gardaí got a phone call from Reid to say that himself and another man were having an argument over cannabis, and requesting their assistance in sorting the problem out.

When they arrived, they searched the premises and Reid admitted the small amount of cannabis he was arguing over was his.

Even the long-serving and vastly experienced Judge Brennan was somewhat taken aback by the situation presented to him. “You couldn’t make it or dream up such a thing as an argument over a bag of cannabis and then calling the guards.”