A man who was prescribed cannabis for medical reasons found himself up in court after he turned to illicit suppliers to source the drug.
Rene Barot, 35, had 47g of the drug in jars in his home when police executed a search warrant there.
His solicitor explained that he had struggled to pay what the drug cost through official channels and had turned to illicit sources to treat his symptoms.
Officers also recovered four grams of psilocin – a psychedelic substance found in mushrooms.
Barot appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to plead guilty to charges of possessing the class B drug cannabis and class A substance psilocin.
Fiscal depute Emily Hood told the court that the drugs were discovered at Barot’s home address on January 12 last year.
Jars of ‘herbal material’
She said: “On the date in question a search warrant was carried out at the locus which recovered a number of jars containing herbal material.”
Various amounts of cannabis, totalling 47g were seized, along with four grams of psilocin.
Solicitor David Patterson, for Barot, told the court that his client had struggled with anxiety and depression and as a result had been prescribed cannabis for medical use.
He said: “He found himself struggling to afford it and purchased it in its illicit form.”
Mr Patterson explained that the psilocin found at the address had also been acquired by Barot for self-medication reasons.
He said: “He is an educated man, he had researched into micro-dosing, he had not used it yet.”
Sheriff Eiligh MacDonald told Barot: “I think it might be a good idea for you to do some hours of unpaid work, that might help you with your mental health condition also.”
She placed Barot, of Ferntower Place, Culloden, on a community payback order with 80 hours of unpaid work to be completed within six months.
