Remember the Australian dad who was caught by police growing his own cannabis plants and making his own cannabis juice for his sick daughters?
Well, we have an update on him: He is not going to jail!
Growing his own cannabis for daughters
Stephen Taylor has been growing his own cannabis and making cannabis juice for his daughters, Morgan and Ariel, who both suffer from an inflammatory bowel disease called Crohn’s disease. The 64-year-old coffee technician trainer had been struggling to find a doctor who would help them with a medical cannabis-based treatment.
However, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration’s application process for legal medical cannabis access is lengthy and very tedious, and no doctor was willing to take it.
As a result, Taylor decided to take matters into his hands in order to help his daughters deal with the pain, as well as to avoid another severe side effect from conventional pharmaceutical drugs.
And his daughters would attest that the cannabis juice indeed worked and their conditions have significantly improved.
The raid
At the end of last year, police authorities raided Taylor’s home, where they found 107 cannabis plants.
Taylor explained that he grew that number of plants in order to meet his daughters’ needs. He said that he needed plenty of cannabis plant material as his girls consume a total of 180ml of cannabis juice each day. According to him, the ideal juicing is 30ml, three times daily.
He was charged with two counts of possessing a prohibited substance and of cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug. The police removed all of Taylor’s cannabis plants from his rented home.
Update: The court’s decision
Taylor had pleaded guilty in court and was given a six-month good behavior bond, without a conviction record.
The charges against him were found proven but they were dismissed.
Magistrate Stephen Corry had told Penrith Local Court that he sympathizes with Taylor’s situation, but that he can’t expect the same outcome if he insisted on continuing to grow cannabis.
Australia’s medical cannabis program
Taylor said he struggled to understand why the Australian government was making it difficult for patients to access medical cannabis. He added that he thinks it is wrong how the government has set up its medical cannabis program, where people who need the plant cannot access it.
“Many parents are screaming out for medical marijuana. Unfortunately, however, there are also so many parents who are getting arrested for it.”
Australia has legalized medical cannabis two years ago and, according to the TGA, more than 1,000 patients have already been able to access the program.