Nelson man surprises police with cannabis confession: ‘I’ve got a grow out back’

The police found two grow rooms in Kenneth Nolan’s bedroom, including one in a tent, when they arrived at his home on an unrelated matter. Photo / 123rf

When police knocked at the door of Kenneth Nolan’s home on a morning in March this year, they found more than what they’d gone looking for.

They’d turned up to what was described as an industrial shed with living spaces attached, on an unrelated matter.

Instead, what they found led Nolan to the justice system.

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The 39-year-old was this week sentenced to 180 hours of community work and nine months of supervision after pleading guilty to charges of procuring and possessing cannabis and possession of methamphetamine.

His lawyer Dave Holloway said in the Nelson District Court that the cannabis found growing at Nolan’s home was something he “had a go at doing” and turned out to be successful at.

It was near midday on Thursday, March 30 and Nolan was still in bed when the police arrived at his home with a search warrant on an unrelated matter.

They were hit with a strong smell of cannabis wafting from inside the home. Once Nolan was up, and police explained why they were there he told them: “You’ll find more than that – I’ve got a grow out back”.

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The police got another search warrant and found two grow enclosures in Nolan’s bedroom. One enclosure was a plywood structure covered by a sleeping bag, and fitted with lights, a fan and ventilation ducting.

Inside the enclosure, 11 cannabis plants in the process of being dried were found, along with cannabis seedling plants of various sizes in buckets.

The second enclosure consisted of an insulated tent fitted with lights, fans, and ventilation ducting, in which eight mature cannabis plants were found growing in buckets.

Police seized 30 items of equipment used for growing cannabis from Nolan’s bedroom, including filters, commercial grow lights, electric cables, timers and fans.

They also found large amounts of cannabis plant material scattered around Nolan’s bedroom, which combined weighed almost a kilogram.

A further 775 grams of dried cannabis plants were found in the plywood grow enclosure, 41.7g of dried cannabis was found in an ice cream container on a couch in the lounge and 150g in a black plastic bag in the kitchen, leading to a total 1.7kg of cannabis material found.

Police also found 2.6g of methamphetamine in plastic containers in Nolan’s bedroom.

Judge Tony Zohrab described Nolan’s efforts as “sophisticated and determined”, and said that the police had been a bit surprised by the find of what was a reasonable amount of cannabis plant.

However, based on the evidence he did not think there was a commercial aspect to it.

“You appear to be a mature man who has an interest in cannabis, but there’s not a commercial component to this,” Judge Zohrab said in sentencing Nolan.

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An order was made for the destruction of the grow room equipment, and Nolan was also ordered to undergo drug and alcohol counselling upon assessment.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.

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