Man gave up £60k job to develop cannabis cream

A MAN gave up his £60,000 a-year IT job to develop a cannabis cream as pain relief for his suffering mother.

Stephen Renton, 38, was growing more than 770 plants, worth a potential street value of 77,000, in the attic of his Midlothian flat.

Firefighters discovered the crop, the largest ever in the Lothian and Borders area, when a blaze caused by an electrical fault broke out.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard yesterday that Renton’s mother Sheila had suffered from chronic nerve end damage for ten years.

Renton, who suffers from chronic joint pain, carried out trials, mixing extracts of the drug into juices, oil and alcohol and tried to create creams and lotions. He grew between 15 and 20 different species of the plant at his home in Eighth Street, Newtongrange.

Renton pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of and producing cannabis between May 2002 and May 2004. Sentence was deferred for background reports.