13/06/2007 00:00:00
UK: Shop owner denies dealing drugs
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A former hydroponic shop owner told a jury yesterday he grew cannabis at
home so he could give his customers better advice.
Phillip Pledge, 38, who was living in Evenlode Tower, Blackbird Leys,
Oxford, at the time of his arrest, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court
accused of planning to sell £3,440 of cannabis and almost 500 tablets.
Police found 601g of cannabis, most of which was the strong skunk'
variety, and nearly 500 dihydrocodeine tablets - a strong prescription
pain killer, the jury was told yesterday.
But Pledge, who used to run the Oxford Hydroponics shop in Watlington
Road, said the drugs were for personal use.
He said: "I grew it to be in the position where you can advise
customers. You need to know."
He said that he had also grown bananas, pineapples, chillies and garlic
using hydroponic growing kits.
Pledge has admitted cultivating cannabis, but has denied possession of
cannabis and dihydrocodeine tablets with intent to supply.
He said: "I just take it for my mind really. I had a lot going on, a lot
to think of. It was doing my head in."
Pledge said he had used cannabis for the past 15 years and some days
would smoke half an ounce to cope with depression, following a fire at
his home in Strawberry Path, Cowley, Oxford.
He said: "I would wake up in the morning, have a joint, and then smoke
joints through the day."
A police raid on his house found cannabis worth an estimated street
value of £3,440, £750 in cash, 12 cannabis plants, 488 dihydrocodeine
tablets, scales and cannabis paraphernalia, prosecutor Cathy Olliver said.
Pledge, of Strawberry Path, said he bought half a kilo of cannabis every
three months from a friend for £400.
But Paul Norley, a former officer with the Thames Valley Police drug
squad and currently a consultant with the drugs valuation advice
service, said it was worth more than that.
Mr Norley said: "(Dealers) know what the value of skunk is and I can't
see why anyone would sell you half a kilo for £400, something they can
get £1,000 for.
"People involved in drugs aren't in it to make friends or anything like
that, they are in it to make money."
Mr Norley also said dihydrocodeine tablets were used by heroin addicts
and could be sold for as much as £2 each.
In a statement given by Pledge at the time of his arrest, he said the
dihydrocodeine tablets were for arthritic pain he suffered in his neck,
shoulders and lower back.
The trial continues.
http://www.oxfordmail.net/display.var.1470007.0.shop_owner_denies_dealing_drugs.php
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12614
Author:
Oxford Mail via UKCIA
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