Laois businessman found not guilty of selling cannabis

A BUSINESSMAN was last week found not guilty of having cannabis for sale or supply in Carlow Circuit Court, claiming that he used it for medicinal purposes only.

Koffi Tobin, 18 Fr Byrne Park, Graiguecullen was found not guilty of the charge of selling or supplying cannabis after gardaí raided his house on 2 June 2023 and found quantities of the drug along with small dealer bags, a weighing scales and other bags that are used for cannabis jellies. Mr Tobin (33) did take responsibility for the drugs but said that he smoked cannabis heavily for pain relief and to help with his anxiety and depression.

Investigating garda Sergeant Fergal O’Connor told the jury last week that gardaí found quantities of cannabis in Mr Tobin’s bedroom and in a garden shed along with over 160 dealer bags and 137 ‘stoner patch’ bags in which cannabis jellies were sold. Sgt O’Connor said that Forensic Science Ireland had examined the drugs and estimated they had a street value of almost €8,500.

In a garda interview, Mr Tobin told officers that the cannabis was mostly of low-grade value that was almost worthless and that he used it to make cannabis butter that he would rub on his joints because he suffered from chronic pain. During the same interview, when gardaí asked him why he had the dealer bags and the bags for jellies, he replied “no comment”. He also told gardaí that he trained for triathlons, that he owned his own business and that he did not sell the cannabis.

The defence called forensic scientist Keith Brown as an expert witness to describe the quality of the drugs found and also to dispute the value the gardaí had put on them.

Mr Brown said that the cannabis consisted of several grades, including some ‘skunk’ that had the more valuable female flowers, while there were also leaves which were of a lower value and stalks which had no active ingredient in them.

He continued that when he removed all the worthless parts of the drugs and, taking into consideration that it was bought in bulk at a cheaper price, he reckoned the whole drugs haul was worth €2,345 or just over €4,000 if it was sold on the street.

Mr Tobin then gave direct evidence in which he said that the only good cannabis in the haul was the cannabis found in his bedroom and that the drugs found in the shed were years old, dating from 2020.

When his counsel Tom Kelly BL asked his client why he had a weighing scales, he replied: “When you buy cannabis, you’re dealing with not the best people in the world”, that he liked to weigh it to make sure it was the correct amount and that “90%” of people who used cannabis would have a similar scales.

When prosecutor Niall Storan put it to him that he had dealer bags because he was selling the cannabis, Mr Tobin said that he used the small bags to carry only a small amount of the drug if he was out and about, because the bags concealed the smell. When he was asked about the ‘stoner patch’ bags, he said that he bought the cannabis jellies online and that the jellies were sold separately to the packets, and that he had eaten all the jellies when the gardaí raided his house.

Mr Tobin also said in direct evidence that he had been using drugs heavily years before but that his brother had died as a result of drug abuse in 2018 and that he had tried to stop taking them. He continued that he ended up in hospital because he didn’t realise that he would need help to come off drugs and that his memory of that time was “very blurry”.

The jury heard that in 2020 Mr Tobin suffered a workplace accident and damaged his back and that, rather than taking codeine, he experimented with using cannabis for mental health and pain-control purposes.

When Mr Kelly asked how his health was in June 2023, when the gardaí came to his home, Mr Tobin said that he was in training for a triathlon but was still smoking heavily. He said that it was “foolish, careless and messy” that he didn’t throw the old cannabis that was in the shed away and that he hadn’t realised it was there. Mr Tobin told the court that he was now a businessman as a director of a logistics company with five employees. He added that he admitted he had “made mistakes” in the past, but for anyone to “think he had time to run around selling waste material is crazy”.

Under cross-examination by Mr Storan, Mr Tobin denied he was under financial pressure at the time the gardaí found the drugs and that he had replied “no comment” to the gardaí when they asked him about the drugs paraphernalia because he was nervous.

In summing up, Mr Storan told the jury that the defendant’s story didn’t stand up to scrutiny and that even low-grade cannabis can be sold. He continued that Mr Tobin was “not making butter to put on scones” and that he would not need “dozens of little bags” if the cannabis was only for his own personal use.

Defence counsel Mr Kelly told the jury that while the concept might be “alien” to them, Mr Tobin was a heavy user of cannabis because he used it for his physical and mental health. He added that it was his client’s right not to answer any questions while being interviewed by the gardaí and that just because he had small, clear plastic bags didn’t mean he was selling drugs.

After some hours of deliberation, the jury found Mr Tobin not guilty of selling or supplying the cannabis.

Mr Tobin did admit to simply owning the drugs and that offence will be dealt with at the next sitting of Carlow Circuit Court in July after a probation report has been prepared.