A HEAVY cannabis user turned to dealing to finance his habit because he was spending £200 a day on it while receiving just £58 a week in benefits.
Clinton Folan was arrested by police who became suspicious of the strong smell of cannabis when they were called to an argument he was having with a woman in the street in Newton Abbot.
They searched him and found 18 individually wrapped bags of the drug which he admitted he planned to sell for £10 each to friends and fellow smokers.
Folan, aged 23, of Broadlands Avenue, Newton Abbot, admitted possession of the class B drug with intent to supply and was jailed for six months, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 100 hours unpaid community work and undergo rehabilitation by Recorder Mr Martin Meeke, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.
He told him: ’You fully admitted your involvement and pleaded guilty at an early stage. You did not try to disguise your own habit, although I am told you have now stopped smoking it.
’I am told you regret this offence and realise it is time to give up. I am able to suspend the sentence in the circumstance of this being your first drug offence.’
Mr William Parkhill, prosecuting, said police were called to an argument between Folan and a woman in the street and searched him because they noticed a strong smell of cannabis.
They found 18 wraps with a total weight of 15.6 grams in a backpack along with a grinder and he admitted selling to a circle of friends and fellow users.
He told police he smoked an ounce of cannabis a day, which cost him £200 a day, and he was selling drugs to support his own usage.
Mr Martin Salloway, defending, said: ’He has expressed his regret and remorse and knows the harm this sort of offending causes. This has brought him to his senses and he doesn’t use cannabis any longer.’
He said Folan would struggle to pay any court costs because his only income is £115.80 a fortnight Job Seekers’ Allowance.