Gracemere doctor’s hemp home a sophisticated setup

A GRACEMERE doctor turned his home into a sophisticated cannabis-producing operation for medical research.

Dr Ian Housego

A GRACEMERE doctor who turned his home into a sophisticated cannabis-producing operation for medical research, has fronted court on criminal charges.

Dr Ian Charles Housego, 44, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton Magistrates Court this month to drugs charges including possession and production.

The court heard that on November 21 at 9.55pm, police attended a Gracemere street in relation to a disturbance.

They spoke with Dr Housego and entered his home where they saw cannabis plants growing throughout the residence.

The police officers exited the house and contacted Rockhampton Criminal Investigation Branch.

Dr Housego was taken to Rockhampton Hospital in relation to an unrelated medical condition.

Some four hours later CIB detectives executed a search warrant in the presence of a justice of the peace.

During the search, police found a hydroponic set-up in the internal garage consisting of a grow tent, exhaust system and heating ultra-violet lamps.

Inside the tent was 18 cannabis plants.

Also in the garage was 30 cannabis seedlings, about 5cm tall, in seedling trays.

In the backyard, police found four mature cannabis plants, about a metre tall.

In the dining room, detectives saw 50 cannabis seedlings, about 10cm in height, growing under purple lights.

On top of a bookcase in the dining room, police recovered a small amount of dried cannabis in a plastic container.

They also found a soil PH test kit in a hallway cupboard.

During a police interview, Dr Housego said he was producing cannabis for research due to an interest in becoming licenced to produce the drug for medical purposes.

He said he was experimenting with growth to ensure he was doing it properly prior to going through an expensive application process with Queensland Health.

Dr Housego, who had no criminal history, told police he had never consumed cannabis himself and had no intention of doing so.

Furthermore, he said he’d never supplied cannabis to anyone.

Representing himself in court, Dr Housego told Acting Magistrate Maryanne May he had medical and dental degrees as well as a medical research degree relevant to what he was doing.

He said he also had multiple post-graduate qualifications.

Dr Housego said there were actually three mature cannabis plants in the backyard as he had run out of space in the grow tent for them.

“They were the original plants to trial the cloning process,” he said.

“The standard success rate with clones in the published literature is one in 10, and of my trial sets I’m now up to about eight-and-a-half out of 10.

“So from a research point of view, as distinct from a legal point of view, I’ve done very well.

“But there were only three mature plants and one seedling growing – it was 5cm tall, it was regarded as a back-up to the primary plants.

“Because you cannot clone clones.

Dr Housego said the 50 cannabis seedlings under the purple lights in the dining room were the “cuttings or clones”. “I’m unaware of the legal definition of a seedling, or indeed a plant,” he said.

“But applying a logic test or the political pub test, if you purchased a twig placed in a piece of soil, which had a one in 10 chance of growing, from Bunnings, I suspect you’d have a lot of disappointed people.

“So, the 50 plants, on the statistical published research, would have in their minds translated to five.”

Dr Housego said 36 plants in the garage were actually strawberries and rhubarb.

“However with respect to the (court) proceedings, I had every intention growing a sufficient number of trial clones to register statistical relevance, so that I could then proceed with the actual application process.”

Dr Housego said he formerly ran a very successful medical/dental/cosmetics business in south-east Queensland until the death of his partner two years ago, who was his practice manager.

“It used to turn over $200,000 a month, however due to her death, I’ve had to declare bankruptcy.”

Dr Housego is currently working as a general practitioner at Gracemere.

He said when he came to the attention of police he was about two weeks away from being confident enough with his research to look at purchasing land at Mount Morgan which had the security requirements to allow him to apply for the licence.

“That would have given me the safety and security to commit everything to this one venture.” Dr Housego was fined $750 and a forfeiture order was issued for the plants and other seized items. No conviction was recorded.