Daily Telegraph, December 14, 1996

"Four years for grower of Britain's 'best pot'"

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A man who grew some of the most potent cannabis ever known in Britain denied the charges at his trial because he said he did not recognize the authority of the court. Robin Scott, 48, told Recorder David Tilehurst: "You do not have the moral, ethical, spiritual, intellectual or even the legal right to sentence me or my wife. Sentence me and be damned!"

Scott, of Liskeard, Cornwall, was jailed for four years. His wife, Frances, who helped to grow the dugs in their farmhouse, was sent to prison for 15 months.

They were convicted at Truro Crown Court after one of the most bizarre criminal trial of recent times.

The jury heard how Scott, who attended Rugby School and Corpus Christi, Oxford, boasted to drug squad officers from Operation Large when they uncovered his activities in December 1995.

"You are talking to a star," he told them. "I grow the best marijuana in the country." In a later interview he admitted making 47,000 Pound at 100 Pound an ounce and said: "Yes I have sold it. I am proud of it".

He told the incredulous officers that he had set up the "Medical Marijuana Foundation" because he wanted to develop a "cannabis pill" as a cure for alcoholism.

Detectives later discovered that Scott cataloged all of his 845 plants in a book headed "Captain's Log, Stardate January 1995, Planet Earth" - a book that contained a complete record of every plant Scott and his wife had grown.

Scott claimed to be a descendant of Sir Walter Raleigh and said use of the drug had improved his sex life.

He also claimed to be a minister of the Church of Scientology and demanded to be addressed during the four-and-a-half week court hearing as "Reverend".

However it later emerged that the Church of Scientology has dissociated itself form him saying he was expelled in 1983 for "failure to adhere to the ethical tenets of the religion".

Scott said: "One of my motives for being involved in cannabis research is that I genuinely and sincerely believe cannabis offered the best cure for alcoholism.

"I believe it is God's will that we should grow this miraculous healing plant. We believe we are deeply privileged to be involved. We feel a moral obligation to make marijuana available to as many people as possible.

"My cannabis Sativa is a tall, graceful plant and in the and, in the opinion of most connoisseurs, a vastly superior smoke. You could say it is the champaign of cannabis, as opposed to the Newcastle Brown.

"My wife and I probably know more about cannabis than anyone else in the country, having read about 5 books, smoked thousands of joints and talked to hundreds of people on both the legal and illegal sides of the cannabis business."

Passing sentence, the judge said he appreciated that the Scotts believed the law was at fault, but added: "At one stage you made [Pound] 35,000 from your activities. This was a sophisticated and calculated plan to grow the best quality cannabis that you could."

Scott had been found guilty at an earlier hearing of two joint charges of being concerned in cannabis production in 1995. His wife was convicted of a lesser offence.

Later, detectives described Scott as "arrogant".