Accused claims he was growing legal hemp plant



A man who claimed the plants growing in his house were legal has lost his case and been found guilty of cultivating cannabis.

Kim Heine Jensen (62) of Killeen, Ballyvary, Castlebar, appeared before Westport District Court, sitting in Castlebar, on Thursday last. He was charged with possession of cannabis, to which he pleaded guilty; and cultivation of cannabis, which he contested. Mr Jensen was representing himself.

Garda Seán Ryan of the Mayo Divisional Drugs Unit told the court that in 2017 he received confidential information that Mr Jensen was selling drugs in Castlebar and he received a warrant to search his property.

He told the court that at 5.30pm on August 31, 2017 he, Detective Sergeant Jim Cadden and Garda Ciarán Naughton, and a customs officer arrived at Mr Jensen’s home and that the backdoor was opened by Mr Jensen.

The court was told Garda Ciarán Naughton found eleven plants growing behind a false wall in the kitchen with two grow lights and a fan also in place. The plans were between eight centimetres and 20 centimetres in height.

Garda Naughton told the court he asked Mr Jensen had he any drugs on the property and that Mr Jensen took him to a Mercedes car in his shed and hidden under a speaker in the back of the car, Mr Jenses took out a box of Benson and Hedges which had inside it 12 cannabis ‘joints’. He pleaded guilty to possession of this cannabis.

Mr Jensen disputed that he opened the door for gardaí and claims the first time he saw a warrant was when gardaí placed it on his kitchen table.

He also disputed grounds for the search warrant, saying they were based on the interception of a legal delivery to him and therefore the grounds for the search were fundamentally flawed. He also took issue with the inference that he was a drug dealer.

Mr Jensen told Judge Deirdre Gearty that two-and-a-half years ago he ‘got into’ CBD oil, a derivative of cannabis, which is legal to use.

He said he found it hard to get a ‘quality, reliable’ supply so took to ordering hemp seeds online to grow them and make his own CBD oil.

He said that while hemp seeds are part of the cannabis species, they contain less THC, the psychoactive compound in illegal cannabis.

He said hemp is ‘a completely different story altogether’ to illegal cannabis and that while he was cultivating plants, that he was growing hemp plants and not illegal cannabis plants.

However, Judge Deirdre Gearty said the analysis of the plants found on Mr Jensen’s property says they are the genesis of a cannabis plant. Mr Jensen argued the analysis was not specific as to which cannabis plant it was. He said hemp and cannabis are often classified as the same.

Judge Gearty asked him had he conducted any analysis of the plants to disprove the State’s case. Mr Jensen handed in a brochure which he says was the product he bought. He said he could not analyse his plants as the Gardaí had seized them.

“It is not fair to convict me for growing something I didn’t do,” he said. “I grow hemp, not cannabis.”

Judge Gearty asked had he a licence to grow hemp. Mr Jensen said he did not.

He told the court he was now self-employed, selling CBD oil.

Judge Gearty ruled against Mr Jensen, saying he had produced no scientific evidence to contradict the State’s case and also ruled the search warrant was valid. She told him he needed to get scientific evidence of his remaining hemp seeds to help his case and he had not done so.

She adjourned the case to February 17, 2020, for the preparation of a Probation Report. She said she is considering a prison sentence. Cultivation of illegal drugs carries a potential prison sentence up to 12 months.