Couple gets house arrest for growing marijuana for purpose of trafficking
Source: The News (New Glasgow)
Copyright: Transcontinental Media
Contact: http://www.ngnews.ca/Contact-Us
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Published: September 29, 2010
NEW GLASGOW – A Watervale couple has received a 12-month conditional sentence for growing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
William Joseph Young, 51, and Judith Marie Jackson, 54, were arrested last October after the Pictou County Street Crime Unit set up surveillance at their home.
Officers noted a marijuana grow operation behind the garage, as well as plants growing along the driveway, several buckets planted with marijuana and a freshly harvested marijuana garden, as well as previously harvested marijuana gardens from other years.
A search warrant uncovered 4,569 grams of loose marijuana in the house, some packaged in half-pound bags, which is typical for traffficking, Crown attorney Ed Patterson told New Glasgow provincial court Monday afternoon.
An additional 25 mature marijuana plants were also found, estimated to contain 81.4 kilograms of marijuana.
"They both admitted they started the plants from seeds in February, initially under the lights indoors, and then moved them outdoors in the spring," Patterson told the court. "Both admitted they were involved and contended they used it for medicinal purposes for a health issue."
Neither Jackson nor Young have a permit to use medicinal marijuana, however, and an export report entered to the court as evidence stated that the quantity of marijuana grown at the property could not possibly be used by two people.
The potential value of the plants was estimated as between $25,000 and $69,000 for the 4,569 grams of loose marijuana and between $15,000 and $25,000 for the marijuana plants.
Defence attorney Hector MacIsaac told the court that his clients had initially grown the marijuana for their own purposes.
"It’s a classic case of individuals growing their own marijuana and then getting on a slippery slope, growing too much for their own use and getting in on the sale of marijuana in addition to their own use," MacIsaac said, adding that his clients were otherwise "hardworking members of society."
Patterson told the court he and MacIsaac had hammered out a joint recommendation that both Young and Jackson would serve a 12-month conditional sentence that included six months of house arrest. The couple would only be allowed outside their residence during the first six months for work purposes and while cutting wood on their own property for heating their home during weekends in October and November.
They will also be required to attend drug counselling and submit to urinalysis if requested.
The conditional sentence would be followed by 12 months of probation.
Judge Del Atwood said there was no doubt that the couple were mid- to high-level marijuana dealers in the community.
"Production of cannabis marijuana at this level is the same thing as sewage flowing into a community," Atwood told them.
He warned them that in future court cases, he’ll be asking about the levels of THC concentration in the marijuana.
"Authorities I have read express the view that the type of cannabis being produced is no longer the soft drug courts were dealing with 20 or 30 years ago," he said. If it’s in the range of a hard drug, he said, there will be hard time.
He warned Jackson and Young they have the "sword of Damocles" hanging over their head and if there are any breaches, they could find themselves serving the remainder of their sentence in jail.
"What happened here must never happen again," he said. "If marijuana is needed for pain control, there is a means through the Medical Marijuana Access Act."
Young also faced four counts of careless use of firearms stemming from the search of the residence, when police found four unsecured firearms that were not locked in proper storage containers. He’ll serve four months of house arrest for the weapons charges at the same time as the house arrest for the drug charges and will be required to forfeit his weapons.
The couple will also have to forfeit drug paraphernalia seized during the investigation, submit to a ban on owning firearms and provide a DNA sample.