A DESPERATE drug dealer who sold cannabis to ‘feed and clothe’ his baby son after recovering from a medically-induced coma has been locked up.

Ashley Powell revealed to police he was forced to leave his job after being placed in the temporary coma when someone at a party spiked his drink.

The 26-year-old epilepsy sufferer told Judge Maria Lamb he ‘respected’ her decision after she threw him behind bars for 12 months yesterday Oxford Crown Court.

Sentencing, the judge said: “Drugs can wreck lives, albeit there is no suggestion that this was all caused by a drug in which you chose to take.

“You chose to involve yourself in dealing cannabis to other people and the court cannot overlook it. It is a serious matter.”

Police uncovered 224g of cannabis in a bucket in Powell’s bedroom, with a street value of £3,200, as well as a ‘tick list’, when they arrested him for an unrelated matter on October 24 last year.

Defence barrister Lucy Tapper said ‘entirely desperate’ Powell, who still suffers unexplained memory loss, sold drugs at £10 per bag to ‘get by’. Powell, of Weyman Terrace, Oxford, admitted possession with intent to supply cannabis, a class B drug, and breaching a suspended sentence.