Darren Coyne
Medicinal cannabis advocate Tony Bower has escaped a 12-month jail term for growing cannabis plants for medicine.
Instead he has been placed on a six-month good behaviour bond, and has vowed to continue making his tinctures by legal means.
Mr Bower appeared in the Port Macquarie District Court yesterday to appeal the severity of the 12-month jail term, handed down on August 28 by retiring magistrate Thomas Hodgson.
Mr Bower, whose company Mullaways Medical Cannabis supplies tincture to more than 150 people, many of them children, was arrested this year for cultivating plants while still on a good behaviour bond from the District Court for a previous cultivation offence.
A police helicopter spotted his crop of 76 plants, each marked with a patient’s name, just days before his 12-month good-behaviour bond was due to finish.
Judge Conlon agreed with Mr Bower’s legal team – barrister Jason Todman and solicitor Jamie Whitehead – that the 76 plants discovered by police were not being grown to make money, but rather for altruistic reasons.
Mr Whitehead told Echonetdaily that everyone supporting Mr Bower was ’over the moon’ with the Judge’s decision to place Mr Bower on a six month good behaviour bond.
‘Judge Conlon said there was no way in the world Tony should be sent to jail,’ Mr Whitehead said.
Judge Conlon also noted that numerous politicians, including NSW premier Mike Baird, had recently been vocal in their support for medicinal cannabis.
Barrister Jason Todman had told the court that a child somewhere would be harmed if Tony Bower was sent to jail.
The court also heard numerous submissions in support of Mr Bower’s work, including testimony from respected drug and alcohol specialist, Dr Alex Wodak, who had been instrumental in setting up a needle exchange in Kings Cross in Sydney.
‘We are most appreciative of the extraordinary efforts of Dr Wodak in assisting Tony,’ Mr Whitehead said.
Meanwhile, Mr Bower has vowed to continue supplying his medicinal cannabis tincture, but doing it in a legal way.
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