CRIPPLED DRUG GROWER JAILED FOR TWO YEARS

A man crippled by a drunk driver who used illegal drugs to control the
severe pain agreed to grow cannabis for a drug dealer during a tumultuous
time in his life, the High Court at Wellington was told yesterday.

Former Auckland man Andrew Glen Dougherty, 30, an ACC beneficiary now living
in the Hutt Valley, was jailed for two years but given leave to apply for
home detention.

He had pleaded guilty to cultivating 150 cannabis plants, selling cannabis
and manufacturing cannabis oil.

The court was told that Dougherty was arrested in December last year during
a police operation targeting two Auckland men known to be dealing in big
amounts of drugs.

Defence lawyer Rob Stevens said Dougherty had suffered severe and lasting
injuries after he was hit by a drunk driver in 1994.

Dougherty had met an Auckland drug dealer who had supplied him with morphine
sulphate for his pain. Last year Dougherty had agreed to grow cannabis for
the man when his pregnant wife had to give up her job and income.

Mr Stevens said Dougherty had acted as a caretaker on a property rented and
equipped by the dealer.

In exchange for supplying the man with cannabis heads for sale, Dougherty
had been allowed to keep the cannabis leaf to make cannabis oil which he
used for pain control, he said.

Crown prosecutor Cameron Mander said Dougherty was involved in a
sophisticated cannabis operation which was an important part of a bigger
dealing enterprise.

Justice Goddard said there was no hope of a suspended prison sentence
because Dougherty had been given a suspended sentence for similar offences
in 1995.

She said she did allow the maximum allowable reduction in sentence for the
early guilty plea and severe injuries for which he had suffered greatly.

Earlier, she had said that the injuries had happened before the first
convictions and therefore could not be taken into account.