Community service for cannabis grower

An unemployed man who cultivated cannabis plants at his home in order to feed his drug habit and so he wouldn’t be “dealing with scumbags” has been ordered to perform 180 hours of community service.

Gerard Batten (aged 35) of Broadfield Heath in Rathcoole pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to cultivating 25 cannabis plants at his home on September 19, 2008.