Drug dealer who made cancer cure claim jailed

Cunningham claimed that cannabis oil could cure cancer in adults, the Solicitor General said in court

A drug dealer who claimed cannabis oil could help cure cancer has been jailed for four years after his initial sentence was deemed too lenient.

Joel Cunningham, from Leeds, was convicted in May of seven offences, including possession with intent to supply magic mushrooms and conspiring to supply THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.

The 40-year-old was handed a suspended 18-month prison sentence the following month, meaning he avoided immediate jail time.

However, that sentence was quashed by a Court of Appeal ruling on Tuesday after the Solicitor General Ellie Reeves - appointed in Labour's ministerial reshuffle 10 days ago - referred the case on the grounds the sentence was too short.

The three judges who heard the appeal imposed a four-year prison term and said Cunningham, who attended the hearing, must surrender to a Leeds police station by 16:00 BST on Wednesday.

The solicitor general said Cunningham claimed cannabis oil "could cure and assist with ailments including cancer in adults and seizures in children".

While there was "no evidence of harm having been caused" by the products supplied, and "some users of the product attributed their recovery to the products provided", the Solicitor General said Cunningham "did not seek to obtain any licence or other authorisation to allow him to sell such products".

When police raided Cunningham's house in October 2021, they found multiple cannabis-based products, £7,748 in cash, luxury watches, a CS spray canister and about 1.5 kilograms of magic mushrooms worth up to £18,500, it was said.

'Unduly lenient'

Jurors convicted him in May of possessing criminal property, two counts of conspiracy to supply THC, possession with intent to supply magic mushrooms, possessing a prohibited weapon, possessing criminal property and offering to sell or supply an unauthorised medicinal product.

The charges spanned a three-year period from November 2018.

Asking for the sentence to be increased, the solicitor general said the magic mushrooms conviction should have been treated as the "lead offence" when Cunningham was sentenced.

She said: "It is not accepted that any intention to supply Class A drugs for medicinal rather than recreational purposes would serve to decrease the sentence significantly."

It was said that Cunningham's representative at the Court of Appeal, George Penny, told judges the sentence was one that could be considered "reasonably appropriate".

However, the judges found that while there was no evidence that Cunningham had supplied magic mushrooms previously "the jury were clearly satisfied that he was planning to do so in the future", and that the sentence was "unduly lenient".

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