Skip to main navigation

Cultivate Cannabis by Enhanced Indoor Means

Cultivating cannabis by enhanced indoor means is an offence under section 23 of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW). The maximum penalty varies between imprisonment for 15 and 20 years, depending on the number of cannabis plants. This charge may not be heard by a magistrate in the Local Court and must be heard in the District Court.

This charge is often used where a person is alleged to have grown cannabis for commercial purposes in residential premises. The offence is committed if a person cultivates, or knowingly takes part in the cultivation of, more than 5 cannabis plants by enhanced indoor means for a commercial purpose.

“Cultivate” includes:

• To sow or scatter cannabis seeds, and

• To plant, grow, tend, nurture cannabis plants.

“Cultivate by enhanced indoor means” includes cultivation of the plant:

• That occurs inside a building or structure, and

• That involves any one or more of the following:

o The nurture of the plant in nutrient-rich water

o The application of an artificial source of light or heat

o Suspending the plant’s roots and spraying them with nutrient solution.

Cultivating cannabis for a “commercial purpose” includes cultivating the plant:

• With the intention of selling it or any of its products, or

• With the belief that another person intends to sell it or any of its products.

To prove this charge, the prosecution must show beyond reasonable doubt that:

• The person takes, or participates in, any step, or causes any step to be taken, in the process of cultivation;

• The person provides or arranges finance for any such step in that process; or

• The person provides the premises in which any such step in that process is taken, or permits any such step in that process to be taken.

You may have a defence if the court is satisfied that you did not know or suspect and could not reasonably be expected to have known or suspected that the plant was a prohibited plant.