Birkdale father condemned at Cleveland court for setting ‘abhorrent’ example to teen son

A Brisbane bayside father has been warned of the developmental dangers he exposed his 16-year-old son to when he allowed him to grow his own cannabis at their home littered with drug utensils.

An unemployed man has been excoriated at court for behaving “abhorrently” by allowing his 16-year-old son to grow his own cannabis.

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Appearing at the Cleveland Magistrates Court on Tuesday the contrite-looking man, who can’t be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing dangerous drugs and one count of permitting use of place.

The court heard police arrived at around 3.30pm at the man’s Birkdale property where they would find numerous drug utensils in bedrooms.

When the father-of-four arrived at the property, the court was told, he made admissions to police about drug possession and told officers he allowed his 16-year-old son to grow his own cannabis for personal use.

The defendant’s behaviour was labelled at the court as “abhorrent as far as the community is concerned” and he was condemned by the prosecution for “feeding his son drugs” when he should have “loved and nourished” him.

Generic image of an arrest.

Defence solicitor Rhys Foster said his client was remorseful, had immediately ceased his drug use and had attended drug counselling after the raid on his house.

Mr Foster further said the defendant, who was on a disability pension and worked as a traffic controller one day a week, had a tough time of it after the untimely death of his sibling and had only dated and sporadic drug offending in his criminal history.

Despite this, Magistrate Deborah Vasta said a deterrence must be set for the community and articulated the dangers drugs such as cannabis posed to the development of children.

The magistrate said medical expertise shared with courts found one in six cases of schizophrenia in Australia is drug-induced, particularly owing to the potency of modern cannabis.

“You don’t want your son to be carving satanic signs into the walls while hearing voices from drug-induced schizophrenia,” Magistrate Vasta said.

“We teach our kids by example and if you are teaching your son to just go and smoke a bong if life gets tough he is very much on the fast track to nowhere, in terms of health, in terms of future employment and education.”

The father was sentenced to 18 months’ probation with no conviction recorded.