A former athletics and kickboxing enthusiast, who was smoking up to 50 marijuana joints a week in an effort to treat muscle pain, has been given a three-year suspended sentence.
Sebastian Feldman (33) was cultivating cannabis with a potential value of over €70,000 in a “sophisticated operation” involving specialised lighting and heating systems.
The plants were at varying stages of maturity and at the time of the Garda search, those ready to be harvested, along with a small amount of prepared cannabis herb, had a value of €24,300.
Feldman pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to cultivation of cannabis at his flat on St Laurence’s Road, Clontarf, on August 16th, 2011. He has no previous convictions and since has stopped using cannabis.
Judge Patrick McCartan said Feldman’s claim of easing joint pain was not supported by the medical documentation before the court, but had been accepted by gardaí.
He noted “peculiar circumstances” surrounding the case, but said he was bound to accept the construction most favourable to Feldman.