Former coal miner avoids jail after 38 plants found at his home during raid

Former coal miner Ian Charles Dickens said he used the illegal drug to tackle his crippling depression and anxiety after being out of work since the 1990s.

The 59-year-old admitted a charge of producing cannabis at his home on Victoria Street in Hemsworth.

Prosecutor Katy Rafter said police forced entry to the two-bedroom mid-terrace property on January 11 and found a tent upstairs containing 26 mid-growth and newly-planted cannabis plants.

They found a ladder up to a hole in the ceiling where they found 12 mature plants ready for harvest in the roof space.

They also found a box of cannabis bush.

Dickens was arrested and questioned but gave no comment. He was two previous convictions for production of drugs.

A probation report found that Dickens had been smoking the drug since 1990, recreationally at first, but then began using it for medicinal purposes.

He worked down the mines and then in a mill, but has been out of work for more than 20 years and his mental health has deteriorated.

He could not longer afford the £100-a-week cannabis habit so decided to grow his own, the court was told.

In 2013 he was deemed unfit to work and said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, although there were no medical records found to confirm this.

Mitigating for Dickens, Christopher Morton said: "He has foolishly sought to self medicate rather than take a proper course of action.

"The plants were for his own use. It was to keep him away from the black market and make his habit affordable."

Mr Morton said that his client was now abstaining from cannabis and was planning to speak to his GP, although Judge Penelope Belcher questioned why he had still not made an appointment.

She added: "You were aware of the scale of the operation and you have two previous convictions of the production of drugs.

"The problem is you now say your best course of action is to go a GP and say you are not using cannabis. I'm struggling to understand how you have dealt with your anxiety."

She said that immediate custody was "entrirely merited" but decided to suspend his 12-month sentence for two years.

She added: "You have come so close to custody today. It's up to you whether you take this chance or carry on.

"You need to put cannabis out of your life, it's a serious drug whatever you think. There are plenty of studies that show it leads to long-term problems."