A Tasmanian man who told a court he grew 177 cannabis plants for his family has been found guilty by a jury of cultivating the drug for sale.
The crop was estimated to hold enough cannabis to last a single heavy user almost three decades.
John William Bradford, 56, was recently sentenced in the Supreme Court to 12 months in prison, wholly suspended for three years.
Police discovered the crop at his Kellevie property, in Tasmania’s south-east, on February 7, 2025, after attending for reasons unrelated to drugs.
Three plants were growing in a vegetable patch and 14 cuttings were found in a nearby shed.
The rest were in a fenced outdoor enclosure, protected from animals by wire cages.
Bradford admitted growing the plants from seed, taking cuttings and watering and fertilising them.
He claimed the cannabis was for personal use and for his family, who are all regular users. The jury rejected that account.
The court heard the 163 mature plants were conservatively estimated to yield enough cannabis to last a single heavy user 27 years, with a potential sale value of $81,500.
The judge did not accept Bradford’s claimed ignorance about the drug’s value.
“You have clearly used cannabis for a long period of time,” Justice Cuthbertson said.
“The cost of purchasing cannabis is something you must have been very familiar with.”
The court accepted Bradford intended to keep some cannabis for himself and his immediate family, but sell the excess.
Bradford had drug convictions dating back to 1997 and a long record of other offending, much of it alcohol-related.
He was assessed as unsuitable for home detention, partly because he still uses cannabis and had taken no steps to address it.
As a condition of the suspended sentence, Bradford must be supervised for 18 months and complete the EQUIPS Addiction Program.
