A cannabis delivery man got orders from his boss to hurry up while supplying "damage and misery" across the city.
The drugs description came from Judge Gregory Dickinson QC, who imposed a six-month prison term, suspended for 15 months on a man.
Sitting at Nottingham Crown Court, the judge ordered Zain Hussain to do 90 hours community work and told him: "This sort of offence is serious and troubling.
"The use of cannabis is causing huge problems in this city and county. A lot of young people are damaging their mental health.
"Very often we are told about somebody who has mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, sometimes something worse like paranoia, psychotic illnesses either caused or aggravated by the use of cannabis.
"It is not because I am old-fashioned or out of touch, the courts see the consequences of cannabis.
"You have been dealing in cannabis - you are helping to spread damage and misery," he told Hussain, 22, of Holbeck Road, Bobbers Mill.
Matthew Hayes, mitigating, said Hussain ran up a "large debt" through using cocaine and cannabis. To pay this off, he was told to make deliveries of cannabis.
He received orders by phone and drove around in a ten-year-old car dropping off the drugs.
"He is not in control of the phone or sending out sales messages. When officers searched his property, they didn't find a lavish lifestyle.
"One of the phone messages told him to speed up and told him to go to the next customer he had to attend to," added Mr Hayes.
Hussain pleaded guilty to having cannabis with intent to supply and with supplying the drug. He had never been in trouble before.
Christopher Jeyes, prosecuting, said Hussain's car was spotted at 2pm on July 17 last year. Police officers became suspicious because they thought the driver was trying to evade them.
"There was a strong smell of cannabis coming out of the vehicle. He appeared to be under the influence of something and there were remnants of vegetable matter," said Mr Jeyes.
Police seized 17 bags of cannabis which would have been worth £280 on the streets. They also found £407 cash in the car.
Mr Jeyes told the judge: "The defendant is a drug runner, providing a ground level service on behalf of somebody else not before the court.
"He seems to be very much under the control of that person. One message said 'speed up and get on with it.'
"He would have had some understanding of the scale of the operation."
The cash and the drugs were seized.
