The Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday indicted a 37-year-old US man for violating the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例) by growing nearly 300 marijuana plants in a house in Changhua County’s Yuanlin Township (員林).
The authorities said the man, whose first name is Mark, was an English-language teacher.
The case came to light when police were tipped off in April. After searching a Yuanlin house and finding 286 marijuana plants, they detained him for questioning.
According to the indictment, Mark obtained 12 cannabis seedlings in 2008 from a South African friend living in Taiwan.
The prosecutors said the American at first planted the seedling on the balcony of his apartment in Yuanlin.
In 2009, he built a greenhouse at his Taiwanese girlfriend’s house after researching online for tips and techniques for growing cannabis.
The police said they found a greenhouse on the third and fourth floors of the house, which had 24-hour ambience control to keep the temperature at a constant 21?C, with air-conditioning and humidity regulation, sun lamps, pH meters, electric fans and professional agricultural implements.
On the man’s computer, the police said they found figures that they suspected were accounts for customer sales.
However, they could not establish if actual sales had taken place.
The suspect has been quoted in Chinese-language media reports as saying that he grew the cannabis for his personal use, because he suffers from severe back pain and insomnia.
“I have tried many other medications, but none of them is effective. Only marijuana worked the best. That is why I started to grow the plants,” the United Daily News quoted him as saying, adding that he said he had not sold cannabis to anyone.
Yet the newspaper reported that after receiving the tip-off, Changhua police had put the house under surveillance before raiding it.
They observed that a significant number of people and cars came to the house on some weekends.
The police said they also suspected the man of selling the marijuana to people at nightclubs and bars, and plan to continue to investigate the possible sales.
Marijuana is classified as a Category II narcotic, along with mescaline, coca leaf, opium and amphetamines.
Article 4 of the act states that people found guilty of manufacturing, transporting or selling Category II narcotics can be sentenced to a prison term ranging from seven years to life.
They may also be fined up to NT$10 million (US$333,400).
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
RSS