Man who made hash oil for migraines jailed for year

Police found 51 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of £5000 when they raided the home of 35-year-old Gareth Jacobs.

Police didn’t seize the oil because they didn’t know it was a concentrated version of the Class ‘B’ drug, Livingston Sheriff Court heard.

But Jacobs, who claimed his drug use was medicinal, took photographs of his Breaking Bad style “lab” and sent them to prosecutors with a detailed explanation of what he’d been doing.

Jacobs earlier pleaded guilty to producing a controlled drug at an address in Livingston, West Lothian, on May 16, 2014.

Jacobs, 35, of Nettlehill Drive, Uphall Station, West Lothian, had electronic scales, special heat lights, transformers, ducting and other equipment to produce and distill his crop.

Stephen Mannfield, defending said more than 500 grams of cannabis had been found by police at his client’s former home in what he described as a “fairly novel” case.

He said: “When producing oil, the plant material is reduced by a factor of seven, therefore that would produce 74 grams of cannabis oil, which is obviously a refined form of cannabis.

“At the time he was smoking 1-2 grams of oil a day. Police when seizing various items of growing equipment, didn’t know what this oil was, so in fact they didn’t seize it from him.

“He took photographs of the equipment and the photos and some other information were forwarded to the Crown on the basis of which a plea was agreed.”

Mr Mannfield said Jacobs was in a full-time job as a glazier with no criminal record and a family to support.

Sheriff Douglas Kinloch said the indictment charge was serious enough to merit a custodial sentence.

He told Jacobs: “This was quite a sophisticated operation which must have involved a lot of planning and quite a lot of equipment.

“There were a fairly large number of plants with quite a high value and the High Court have made it clear that growing cannabis plants has to be seen as something quite different to possession of cannabis.

“There must in my view be a prison sentence.”