Husband and wife drug team escape jail term (From Worcester News)
Get involved! Send your photos, video, news & views by texting WN NEWS to 80360 or e-mail us
Husband and wife drug team escape jail term
2:40pm Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News
A HUSBAND and wife who were caught in a police raid growing cannabis in their Worcester home have been given suspended prison sentences.
Local authority workers Matthew Kirkham, aged 32, and 31-year-old Victoria Kirkham said they had calculated they could save money by growing the 16 cannabis plants for their own use at their home in Buck Street, St John’s, Worcester. Both were heavy users of the drug.
But messages were found on Kirkham's mobile phone suggesting he had also been planning to sell some of the cannabis to friends who were drug users, Worcester Crown Court heard.
Steven Bailey, prosecuting, said the plants were discovered growing in a tent under a 600-watt lamp when police raided the house in July last year. The plants were six to eight weeks from maturity when they could have potentially yielded skunk cannabis worth up to £3,500.
Both pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and Matthew Kirkham also pleaded guilty to a supply charge for the Class B drug.
Mr Bailey said Kirkham had told police he only had a list of four or five names in his possession because he was writing a storyline for a film about drug dealers.
He later changed his story and admitted that he had intended to make some money out of of selling some of the cannabis.
Barry Newton, defending, said Kirkham had used cannabis for a number of years but had stopped completely since the raid. The couple had been married for four years and had bought the house together but had lost their jobs and got into financial difficulties.
They had been left with debts of about £7,000. Kirkham and his wife now worked full time as local authority workforce support officers but were likely to lose their jobs and could face losing their home.
Ruth Edwards, defending, said Victoria Kirkham had started using cannabis at school and carried on through university. She said Mrs Kirkham had been frightened by the experience of being arrested and had also stopped using cannabis. Both had shown genuine remorse. Matthew Kirkham was given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years and Victoria Kirkham was given an eight month sentence also suspended for two years.
Recorder Greg Pryce said he believed Kirkham had intended to make as much money as possible from the cannabis production.
A proceeds of crime hearing is expected at a later date.
Comments(17)
DanMacc
says...
2:57pm Wed 6 Mar 13
iamthebinman
says...
7:55pm Wed 6 Mar 13
DanMacc
says...
8:42am Thu 7 Mar 13
countrybumpkin999
says...
10:23am Thu 7 Mar 13
DanMacc wrote:DanMacc exactly how does one overdose on Cannabis? I am sure it has been proven to be impossible to overdose from THC so i'm interested in this.
Obviously you have never had a family member overdose on cannabis. Its a horrible drug and deserves the correct punishment.
Horrible drug? Not as bad as alcohol - just look at the number of alcohol related crimes that occur EVERYDAY in this country but the Govt make so much money from alcohol companies and consumers that they will not regulate that.
If you are speaking from experience answer this,. who is more likely to attack you? Someone who has had 5 pints or five smokes? The more a person drinks the more aggressive they can get, the more someone smokes the more timid/tired/relaxed they get. With any drug in this world, if a person already has underlying issues then drugs, including alcohol, can exaggerate these issues, meaning they do not surface until someone is drunk/stoned/high. Then all that has happened is that the drug has helped these issues surface - but then drugs/drink are blamed for doing this.
Answer me this? Are all drunks the same? Some people when drunk get aggressive, some get happy, some just laugh, some cry, some fall asleep thus proving there is not one standard reaction and it is down to that individual person and not always the substance they are taking!
scolesy
says...
12:28pm Thu 7 Mar 13
DanMacc wrote:Overdose from weed??? What happened died from the giggles??
Obviously you have never had a family member overdose on cannabis. Its a horrible drug and deserves the correct punishment.
DanMacc
says...
3:04pm Thu 7 Mar 13
It is also known to cause paranoia, leading to mental illness, I have personally known the anger people feel when they are unable to get their fix.
I think 5 years in prison for possession and 15-20 for dealing and class c drug would be suitable punishment.
pronstar
says...
7:35pm Thu 7 Mar 13
DanMacc wrote: @countrybumpkin Yes you can overdose from cannabis, my friend once took too much and flipped out, attacking me for looking at him funny, he then had to go and live in a home because he couldn't function in the real world any more. There is your proof.
No he didn't. This never happened & you're making it up.
It is also known to cause paranoia, leading to mental illness, I have personally known the anger people feel when they are unable to get their fix.
Wrong again, but if you have the proof to support your claims, please post a link. A peer reviewed study published in The Lancet or similar publication should suffice, as opposed to you just saying "there is your proof" or linking to some rant by Hitchens in the Heil.
I think 5 years in prison for possession and 15-20 for dealing and class c drug would be suitable punishment.
You need to seek professional help right away.
Jabbadad
says...
12:56am Fri 8 Mar 13
Even when we suggest that smoking is bad for you FACT we hear of someones Gran or old Aunt who smoke Woodbines or Parkdrive for years and lived to a ripe old age, yeah yeah.
But you could always spot them because they were the ones who were stooped over from coughing their lungs up, or you could smell them coming down the street like mobile ashtrays.
DanMacc
says...
8:46am Fri 8 Mar 13
The only people who think cannabis is harmless and "rad" is the people who sit around all day smoking it listening to Bob Marley and praising Peace and Love.
pronstar
says...
8:48am Fri 8 Mar 13
Jabbadad wrote:
So do the whacky users. Sound research fro america suggests that cannabis cooks the brain and the brain cannot renew itself, so as it dies so do the functions. So lets hear from those who defy the medical evidence.
Even when we suggest that smoking is bad for you FACT we hear of someones Gran or old Aunt who smoke Woodbines or Parkdrive for years and lived to a ripe old age, yeah yeah.
But you could always spot them because they were the ones who were stooped over from coughing their lungs up, or you could smell them coming down the street like mobile ashtrays.
Cannabis cooks the brain
That is absurd and you really ought to be severely ashamed of yourself for making such a ridiculous statement. It just shows how ignorant people of your generation are, and why it's good that you're all dying off.
Given your age, I suspect this might be a throw back to the US administration under Nixon, whereby they decided it would be a good idea to suffocate monkeys by forcing cannabis smoke into their lungs. Starved of oxygen, the first thing to happen to the monkey's brain is that the cells die off, then the monkey dies of course.
So the US government then declared that they had proved that cannabis kills brain cells. Unfortunately they did not disclose their methods and it took many years for the sick truth to emerge.
In the intervening period, people believed that the government were right and the ones who were unable to decipher fact from fiction, and were particularly prone to propaganda, still believe it to this day.
Post a link to this "Sound research" you refer to and let's have a look at it. I suspect that you can't because it doesn't exist and as usual you are talking through your anus.
pronstar
says...
9:00am Fri 8 Mar 13
DanMacc wrote:Post facts not conjecture.
Here Here Jabadabbada Right on!
The only people who think cannabis is harmless and "rad" is the people who sit around all day smoking it listening to Bob Marley and praising Peace and Love.
I want to hear more about these harms you speak of and would like to see links to proper research carried out to prove them.
What's that you say? You can't provide any evidence because there isn't any and you were just making it all up and churning out tired old stereotypes like your buddy jabbadad does? Oh I thought as much.
DanMacc
says...
10:35am Fri 8 Mar 13
http://www.daca.org.
au/illicit/cannabis/
articles/html/p2/Res
earch_proves_cannabi
s_is_dangerous.html
http://www.drugabuse
.gov/about-nida/dire
ctors-page/messages-
director/2013/01/mar
ijuanas-lasting-effe
cts-brain
http://www.scienceda
ily.com/releases/200
8/10/081014111156.ht
m
Jabbadad
says...
2:46pm Fri 8 Mar 13
DanMacc
says...
10:40am Sat 9 Mar 13
RobertR
says...
7:28pm Sat 9 Mar 13
Ten years min jail term for supplying. Far more dangerous than guns.
DanMacc
says...
8:38am Mon 11 Mar 13
countrybumpkin999
says...
10:45am Tue 12 Mar 13
RobertR wrote:Far more dangerous that guns? You Sir are a fool. This is probably why pronstar is not answering.
Cannabis is dangerous. It is supplied by some of society's worst criminals. These people have no conscience about the effect on their victims. Get real. Having had first hand experience of it's effect on family and close friends (It causes severe paranoia) Only a fool would touch it. Hence it's name. Dope.
Ten years min jail term for supplying. Far more dangerous than guns.
I like how yourself, Robert and Dan Macc are failing to answer my questions from my first post. Alcohol is more dangerous than weed as it is more readily available as it is legal, bars and clubs get away for selling it for dirt cheap and i bet you the number of crimes called by someone smoking a lot of cannabis is in it's low thousands (maybe even hundreds) yet the number of crimes caused by drunk people is in the millions.
Alcohol causes all the same effects as cannabis as well as a number of different issues. You are more likely to get mugged/attacked by someone who is drunk than stoned and if you can't see that you have issues.
And you are all talking about paranoia? As i said in my previous post people with already underlying issues may show these symptoms more when stoned but i am fairly sure these same people would do the same when they are drunk. Think how many rapes/murders/beatin
gs/robberies have occureed by druink people? Go and stand outside Tramps after chucking out time and see how people act! If they had been having a smoke instead of a drink they would have all been tucked up in bed hours ago not fighting, arguing, shouting, swearing etc
It is this sort of ignorance which completely destroys all of your arguments.
Comment now! Register or sign in below.
Log in with us
Fields marked with * are mandatory.
Or
Log in with