Man ate lump of cannabis rather than give it to gardaí

A 47-year-old man ate a lump of cannabis rather than hand it over to gardaí. Garda Patrick O’Sullivan testified yesterday the gardaí could see the black bits of cannabis resin on the suspect’s teeth when they were talking to him at the scene.

Stephen Foley of 20, The Maples, Bridgemount, Carrigaline, Co Cork, pleaded guilty yesterday at Cork District Court to obstruction of a drugs search on July 26 last year. Garda O’Sullivan said: “We first got a smell of cannabis coming from the car and then we saw evidence of cannabis in his teeth. We found a small quantity of cannabis resin in the car. He admitted it was for his own use.”

Defence solicitor Eddie Burke confirmed that the accused had swallowed cannabis. He said the accused’s wife had died suddenly three weeks earlier and he was upset. Inspector Fergal Foley said the accused had 58 previous convictions including four for having drugs including heroin for his own use.