47-year-old from Ig sentenced to two years imprisonment for cultivating 842 cannabis plants
A judge sentenced a 47-year-old man to two years imprisonment for cannabis cultivation and electricity theft. The defendant claimed he needed the money for treatment in Switzerland.
Ruling on cannabis cultivation: laboratory in Ig, money for Switzerland
As reported by dnevnik.si, Judge Živa Zaplotnik sentenced a 47-year-old man from Ig to a combined prison sentence of two years for cultivating prohibited cannabis and stealing electrical energy. Police officers exposed him on 22 April following an anonymous tip about activity at a house in Ig.
During a house search, officers discovered 842 living cannabis plants in the premises and seized 12.5 kilograms of dried plant material. For cultivation, the judge determined one year and ten months imprisonment, with an additional four months for damaging Elektro Ljubljana. The defendant had run supply cables to the laboratory space around the meter so that electricity consumption was not recorded. It was calculated that from early December until his exposure, he had stolen at least €2,760 worth of electricity.
The defendant admitted to cultivating 842 plants and the electricity theft. The only disputed issue was the dried plant material. At the main hearing, he claimed it was waste — partially rotten plant remains stored in a barrel and intended for disposal. Defence counsel Žiga Peternel described the material in his closing remarks as "degraded, completely unusable for smoking and processing".
Prosecutor Anita Filipčič rejected this thesis. The judge also sided with the prosecution. Zaplotnikova pointed to the defendant's statement in the judicial investigation that he had sold only a small part after the first harvest. "From this it follows that he intended to sell the remainder as well — and that is exactly what the dried material found during the search is. At that hearing there was no mention of waste or plants that had already begun to rot," she said. She added that it was visibly obvious that it was not waste. "It was carefully prepared dried drug, 'clean' leaf and bud particles that can be used as material for extract. Hashish and hashish resin can be made from it…" She also pointed to the THC concentration: in more than eight kilograms of buds it was 8.8 per cent, and in the mixture of leaves and buds (4.4 kilograms) 5.8 per cent.
A key question was the defendant's claim that he needed the money — specifically €50,000 — for treating multiple sclerosis with stem cells in Switzerland. The prosecutor accompanied this defence with the words that it was "in no way proven". She estimated that with cannabis he could have earned €300,000 annually and proposed a combined sentence of two years and ten months imprisonment and a fine of €5,000.
Defence counsel rejected the accusation of profiteering. "He had no intention to get rich, this is just a blanket allegation by the prosecution. Three hundred thousand euros is an absurd amount without basis; they found no cash during the house search," he responded and argued for a suspended sentence with the maximum probation period.
The judge, in determining the sentence, took into account that there was no evidence of organised sales and that specific profit could not be precisely established. "It cannot be said with certainty that he would not have stopped selling cannabis once he had reached the amount needed for treatment in Switzerland," she explained. She did not impose a fine because profit had not been specifically established. A suspended sentence was also not considered appropriate, given the professionally equipped laboratory and the amount of seized drug.
As a particularly significant mitigating circumstance, the judge took into account that the defendant had reached a settlement with Elektro Ljubljana for payment of more than €22,000 — that is, for approximately one year of electricity theft, even though the indictment accused him of only four months. Elektro confirmed that he is already paying the compensation. The judge extended house arrest until the sentence becomes final, and the defendant must also pay the costs of the criminal proceedings.
Source: Google News SI — Crime (sl)