The South Jakarta Police’s Narcotics Unit arrested a 26-year-old man, identified by his initial K, in Kebagusan, South Jakarta, over the weekend after they found that he had been growing marijuana in his place of residence.
The police received information from the public that K was growing the illegal narcotic inside his kost (boarding house) and carried out a raid on Saturday. There, they found that K had planted marijuana seeds in three plant pots, one of which had successfully grown to about a meter high.
“According to the suspect, he was growing (marijuana) for his own personal use,” said Vivick Tjangkung, head of the South Jakarta Police Narcotics Unit, as quoted by Kompas today.
According to the police, K, a musician, has been consuming marijuana for the past four years. He bought marijuana seeds from his friend about a month ago and set about growing his own weed at home.
Apart from the marijuana plant, the police also confiscated 1.36 grams of marijuana ready to be smoked, which he had bought on a separate occasion.
K may face a punishment of up to 12 years in prison for the cultivation of illegal narcotics.
People have been sentenced to death for marijuana-related crimes in Indonesia in the past. However, there have been legal developments recently that suggest the country might become more lenient towards growing marijuana for medical purposes (which is technically still illegal in Indonesia), such as the case of Fidelis Arie Sudewarto, who was only sentenced to 8 months in prison for growing marijuana to treat his dying wife, despite calls from authorities that he should be given the death penalty.
