A man who grew 296 marijuana plants at his rural property near Tallarook has been jailed.
Clint McKenzie, 47, of Sugarloaf Creek, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to cultivating a commercial quantity of a narcotic plant, drug trafficking and drug possession.
He also pleaded guilty to summary charges of possessing a prohibited weapon and possessing a schedule four poison.
The court heard police searched McKenzie’s property at Sugarloaf Creek — near Tallarook — on February 3 last year and found the 296 cannabis plants, weighing a total of 258kg, growing.
There were 32 plants in a garden bed, 149 plants in a different garden bed, 70 growing along a fence, 26 along a creek, eight in the creek bed, three in a rear yard and eight in pots in a hydroponic set-up.
Police also found 915g of cannabis powder and 1.82kg of dried cannabis, some of which they say he intended to sell.
In a police interview, McKenzie said he smoked a quarter of an ounce of cannabis a day and grew the cannabis to store for his own use.
The court was also told he was trying to get “two or three years” supply of cannabis grown so he would not have to buy it.
Police also found some LSD tablets in a box that McKenzie told police were “old acid trips” and an oestrogen blocker he said he had bought 10 years earlier in Thailand.
They also found a knuckleduster, throwing knife and three nunchucks.
McKenzie told police he had some of the weapons “for 20 years” from when he did martial arts and had picked them up overseas.
The court also heard McKenzie received a serious injury when he was hit by a car when he was a nine-year-old and had spent three months in hospital.
After the incident he was bullied, and that continued throughout much of his childhood.
The defence put that McKenzie started using cannabis in his 20s because of the bullying.
He also used LSD when he was in his 20s as a “party drug”.
The court was also told McKenzie was diagnosed with cannabis misuse disorder, and had developed adjustment disorder with a depressed mood since he was arrested on this matter.
When sentencing McKenzie, Judge Michael Cahill noted McKenzie had lost his farm at Sugarloaf as a result of these crimes, which he said was “extra curial punishment” in the matter.
Judge Cahill said 100 plants was considered a commercial quantity of cannabis and McKenzie’s 296 plants was almost three times this amount.
Twenty-five kilograms is the minimum weight of cannabis plants considered a “commercial quantity” — with the almost 258kg these plants weighed making them “more than 10 times” this, Judge Cahill said.
The judge noted the cannabis growing was “well set-up”, but accepted that McKenzie grew the cannabis “for your own addiction”.
“There is no evidence you profited from it,” Judge Cahill said.
“I accept it is unlikely you will re-offend, and your prospects of rehabilitation are good.”
McKenzie was sentenced to three years in prison on the charge of cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis.
He was also sentenced to nine months in prison for drug trafficking, but the judge ordered this be served concurrently, making a total prison sentence of three years.
The judge also ordered that McKenzie be eligible for parole after one year and six months, with the 425 days he has spent in pre-sentence detention to be counted as time already served.
McKenzie was also fined $200 for drug possession and $400 for possessing the weapons.
On the charge of possessing a schedule four poison, Judge Cahill convicted McKenzie and discharged the charge.