The Court: Melbourne Magistrates Court
The Lawyer: Kieran Burke
The Charges:
The Allegations:
The charges arose from the real estate agent’s inspection of the client’s rental. Whilst inspecting the premises, some drug paraphernalia and plants were found.
Police then executed a search warrant and located a total of 45 cannabis plants weighing more than 5 kilograms, 19 leafy stems of cannabis weighing almost 30 grams, and some loose and liquid cannabis weighing just over 1.5 kilograms. This made a total weight of over 6.5 kilograms of cannabis located throughout the house.
Our client was the only occupant of the premises and was a young person in their early twenties with no prior criminal history.
Our client had left home at an early age, as there were issues in the family home. Our client had supported himself and lived independently ever since, but what it meant was that when an injury occurred, he was not in a financial position to be able to afford the surgery, nor take the time off work for the recovery period after.
Essentially, this left him in the position where he had lived with a significant knee injury for over four years. Unfortunately, the pain medication prescribed to our client had significant side effects that made it impossible for him to work as he could not drive a forklift under the influence of it. Therefore, our client began to use cannabis to treat the pain.
However, our client again was not financially able to continue to purchase the cannabis, nor did he want to deal with the type of people who sell it. Thus, our client decided to try to grow his supply for the foreseeable future.
The setup was not very sophisticated; it was essentially just a bunch of pot plants around the house and outside.
Our client was cooperative with police and made full admissions to police in relation to growing his own supply of cannabis as he was using it to manage his chronic pain from a knee injury in his teen years.
At Court:
The possibility of diversion was extensively discussed with the prosecution and the informant.
The prosecution had great reluctance to recommend diversion, given that there was over 6.5 kgs of cannabis found. There would be a significant difference between growing the plants to sell and simply growing them for personal use.
Extensive medical documents regarding the long-standing injury and the range of treatments the client had tried were relied upon to establish that our client had no commercial interest in growing the plants and that they were solely for personal use to treat the chronic pain.
Furthermore, the prosecution was also provided with evidence of our client’s new address and the counselling he had undergone since the incident.
After lengthy discussions, the prosecution finally agreed to recommend diversion, and the matter went before a Magistrate.
The Outcome:
The Magistrate had concerns about the suitability of the matter for diversion, given the quantum of cannabis found at the premises. However, after detailed submissions around our client’s background and current circumstances, in particular the fact that he was on the waitlist for the surgery and engaged in treatment for the drug use, the Magistrate agreed to give our client the opportunity of diversion.
The diversion was of immense value for such a young person. Rather than having a criminal record that would last a lifetime, these charges would be marked discharged upon completing the diversion program, and our client’s record would remain clean. The importance of this for future job opportunities and travel plans is immeasurable.
It was amazing to successfully get diversion for such a large quantity of cannabis. The result was born of extensive preparation, tenacity, and getting the right material to evidence our position early in the case, a theme that flows through all good court outcomes.
