DOCTOR LASHES OUT AFTER DRUGS CONVICTION

ALREADY facing possible charges of contempt of court, a Sydney
doctor who grew almost 50,000 cannabis plants has verbally attacked
police, the courts and his conviction.

Dr Andrew John Katelaris was convicted on March 8 this year of one
count of cultivating not less than a large commercial quantity of cannabis.

He was given a three-year good behaviour bond by Judge Ralph
Coolahan when he appeared in the NSW District Court in Newcastle today.

But Judge Coolahan said he was referring another matter, in which
Katelaris accused a jury of being ignorant and referred to them as
"sheep", for consideration of charges of contempt.

Outside court following his conviction, and despite pleas from both
his barrister and sister not to speak to the media, Katelaris said
the courts and police had "behaved very poorly".

As he spoke, he held a sign with the name of a pro-cannabis website.

When asked what he thought of his good behaviour bond, Katelaris
said: "You don't expect this sort of treatment".

"I think I was behaving in the last three years very well," Katelaris said.

"It has been the courts and the police that have behaved very
poorly. It's a foolish decision by a foolish process."

Katelaris grew the cannabis plants on his property at Salisbury,
near Dungog in the NSW Hunter Valley.

He bought the property in early 2004 and was found to have grown the
commercial-sized crop between December 2004 and January 2005. At no
time did he deny growing the crop nor did he try to conceal it.

Laboratory tests revealed the plants were of
low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content. THC is the ingredient that
makes cannabis potent as a drug.

The court accepted the cannabis had no value as a drug.

After a six-day trial in March, Katelaris was found guilty by a jury
of growing the crop without a licence.

When the jury handed down its decision, Katelaris told them:
"Regrettably the next generation will suffer from your ignorance".

He later described the jury to the media as sheep.

Judge Coolahan, during sentencing today, brought up the incident and
said he would refer the matter to the Registrar of the NSW Court of
Appeal for consideration of charges against Katelaris for contempt.

Katelaris told reporters today he had spent a great deal of time
developing an industrial form of hemp to benefit the state of NSW.

"If anyone out there in TV land is still alive, have a look at the
website. The war against industrial hemp is a war against the planet."

He said that as long as the "temperature of this atmosphere is
increasing and the oceans are rising" his work in promoting
industrial hemp would not end.

At one stage Katelaris' sister tried to drag him away from the
media, saying her brother was determined to "work within the law in
the future".

During the trial Katelaris had told the court the crop was for
scientific research, and that the study of industrial hemp could
solve environmental problems.

In December 2005, the NSW Medical Tribunal revoked Katelaris'
licence to practice as a medical practitioner in NSW for three years.

The tribunal suspended him over the self-administration of cannabis
and supplying it to some patients.