A 25-year-old man was before Castlebar District Court this week for driving while under the influence of cannabis.
John Murphy, Knocknageehy, Breaffy was stopped by Garda Naughton on March 2 2011 at 3.25am at Kilkenny, Castlebar, after the garda noticed that Murphy was driving erratically as he crossed over the white line on a number of occasions.
When stopped, the garda noticed that there was a strong smell of cannabis coming from the car. Beside the driver’s seat a small bag of cannabis was found. The defendant admitted to gardaí that he had been smoking the drug that night.
Murphy was arrested and at Castlebar Garda Station he provided two urine samples which were sent for analysis; the results of which showed that there was no alcohol present, however cannabis was detected in the sample.
It came to light that the urine was tested at a later date for cannabis and therefore Judge Mary Devins gave the inspector time to check with the medical bureau to see if there was a time limit as to when a urine sample can be tested.
The case was adjourned to March 7 2012.
