Sam Eccles, 32, pleaded guilty in the Koori division of the Warrnambool Magistrates Court.

Eccles said he had debilitating ongoing pain due to compressed disks in his back suffered about six years ago when he was the passenger in a car accident on Castle Carey Road.

He said he grew the cannabis during the COVID pandemic to self-medicate his post traumatic stress disorder and for depression and back pain.

Eccles said his business was suspended during the pandemic but was now taking medicinal cannabis after getting his treatment organised.

He said he took the medicinal cannabis by vaporising it and it was far more effective than his previous self-medication efforts.

Lawyer Amanda Chambers said Eccles was the first person she knew who had managed to access the medicinal cannabis program.

Police told the court they were called in July last year to a Clifton Street address in Warrnambool.

There they found a black Holden ute being loaded onto a trailer.

The neighbours had called police after noticing activity at a home.

It turned out that Eccles was helping secure the property of a friend who had been taken into custody by police.

Eccles was found to have set up a small cannabis grow house and he had dried cannabis and an extendable baton.

Koori elder Janice Lovett said it seemed a lot of cannabis for personal use.

Magistrate Mark Stratmann said on the face of it Eccles had been involved in serious offending, but he accepted Eccles had a significant back injury and strong family support.

He said Eccles had an excellent knowledge of the medicinal cannabis system, had taken the right step to go about treating his pain and was a low risk of reoffending.

Eccles was not convicted and placed on a six-month good behaviour bond with the condition he pay $350 to the court fund.

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