Man avoids jail after cultivating a commercial quantity of a cannabis

Medicinal cannabis producer and advocate, Tony Bower, has made Australian history thanks to Judge Leonie Flannery not passing a prison sentence for the offence of cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis.

Instead, Judge Flannery proposed an Intensive Corrections Order over an 18-month period of which some may be served as home detention. The details of the term are to be finalised when the matter is next listed on April 1. It all started in March 2018 when policed raided a property in Crescent Head (about a 5-hour drive north of Sydney) they believe to be the home of a cannabis plantation. They were right - 280 cannabis plants were seized by local police that day. No one was arrested. The next day, upon hearing the news his home was raided and all his plants taken, Tony decided it would be best if he were to hand himself into police. And so, he was taken into custody and charged with dealing in the proceeds of crime, possessing and supplying a prohibited drug, and cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.

Why was prison not imposed?

Before handing down her sentence, Judge Flannery took into account Tony's act of handing himself in, his guilty plea submitted and acknowledged that there was no reason to believe that Tony was supplying the drug in an illicit form. She also noted Tony's desire to cultivate the cannabis in order to provide pain relief, and the lower levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is a feature of medicinal cannabis. Additionally, the judge stated:

The offender has acted out of compassion for people.

This case is one of the first instances where an Australian judge has not imposed harsh sentences on growing and producing cannabis.