A man who grew marijuana at a farm in Lehbab would boil the leaves in water and drink the ‘tea’, Dubai Criminal Court heard.
The Pakistani defendant, 52, was arrested after Dubai Police’s drug control department were tipped off about the farm’s supervisor.
“We were told that the defendant’s compatriot, who is the farm’s supervisor, was using and dealing marijuana but it turned out that he was using the substance,” said an Emirati major.
Police raided the farm on March 15 and arrested the supervisor along with all the farm workers, including the defendant.
They found a large pot containing leaves that tests by the criminal laboratory found to be marijuana.
"Each farmworker was questioned and only the defendant admitted to growing marijuana. He had three marijuana plants and some leaves already plucked and boiled in four litres of water," said the major.
The defendant said the other workers had no knowledge of the illegal plant and didn't use drugs.
"One of them told us that he remembers seeing the defendant planting seeds he brought back with him from Pakistan but they didn't know it was marijuana and none of them ever used it with him," said the major.
The men were tested for drugs and their results came back negative.
Police confiscated the three plants and the bucket of water in which the defendant boiled the marijuana.
In court on Sunday, the defendant denied a charge of planting marijuana and dealing in drugs. He told judges that another man at the farm had been growing the marijuana.
The court will issue his verdict on July 10.
