Arthritic pensioner grew cannabis

6:48pm Tuesday 19th February 2008

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A pensioner who confessed to growing his own cannabis plants at his Tooting home to combat chronic arthritis escaped with a £70 fine from magistrates.

Frederick Robert Turner, of Manville Road, pleaded guilty at South West Magistrates' Court last Friday to producing the class C drug.

In September last year, police arrested Turner, 67, after finding six cannabis plants at his house.

In court, he admitted he had been cultivating and smoking the drug to alleviate the symptoms of his painful arthritis.

The former horticulturalist, who suffers from high blood pressure and rheumatoid arthritis, claimed to smoke the drug to assuage the pain of his joints, but did not want to go to a street dealer, so decided to grow his own.

As Turner lives solely off his £100 per week pension, magistrates decided it was more appropriate to hand the pensioner a conditional discharge, meaning he cannot re-offend within 12 months of this case, in addition to the fine and court costs.

The maximum sentence for producing cannabis in this case was three months' imprisonment and or a £2,500 fine, but the law takes into account cases where the drug is used for medicinal purposes.