A man caught with a kilo of cannabis has been ordered to carry out unpaid work in the community.
Michael Hamill had claimed the class B drugs, worth up to £14,995, were for his own personal use.
He said scales that were found at his home were to check that he hadn’t been ripped off by his online seller.
Despite his excuses, he admitted a single charge of possessing cannabis with intent to supply and returned to Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing.
At the previous hearing fiscal depute Susan Love told the court that at around 4pm on May 11 2022, police carried out a warranted drugs search at Hamill’s Caledonian Road home in Inverness.
Drugs search found kilo of cannabis
The 32-year-old was not home officers recovered herbal material later confirmed to be 1065 grams of cannabis and seized scales, a grinder and bags.
Hamill was later traced in a retail park car park in Aviemore.
At a police interview, he claimed the class B drugs were for his own use and said he had “sourced it online from Canada and the US”.
He said he “used scales to weigh it so he didn’t get bumped” and “used the heat sealer to seal it to prevent his family from smelling it”.
The court heard that the drugs had an estimated value of between £8,670 and £14,995.
Following the guilty pleas, defence agent Shahid Latif explained his client had experienced adversity in his childhood and had used alcohol as an adult, which had led to offending.
On the recommendation of an associate, Hamill stopped using alcohol and turned instead to cannabis. Mr Latif said his client had not offended in a number of years but was using three to 3.5 grams of the drug every day.
He said: “Use of drugs is a vice – he is not yet clear of it.”
At the sentencing hearing, solicitor Clare Russell reiterated that Hamill had been using drugs to self-medicate and conceded that he ought to have considered the possible consequences before sourcing the large quantity of drugs online.
She said: “He accepts his responsibility.”
Cannabis not a ‘cure-all’
Sheriff Aitken told Hamill: “This was a particularly poor decision on a number of fronts.
”Cannabis is not some marvellous cure-all – there are significant psychological downsides to use of a substance.”
He said Hamill was “very close” to a custodial sentence but instead placed him on a community payback order with 18 months of supervision and 240 hours of unpaid work in the community.