The trial of Jurgen Human, a Warrenton farmer who was arrested for allegedly cultivating and distributing dagga, took an unexpected turn in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court yesterday when an expert witness for the defence dismissed official police statements. This follows a police expert who testified and produced an affidavit on how the potency and subsequent worth of the plants were calculated. He testified that “he could see that the plants had a high THC content and that it was of a completely new variety”.

Jurgen Human

However, Edmund Geduld, who holds a degree in Chemistry, an Honours degrees in Botany and a Masters degree in Educa­tion, said that it was scientifically impossible to determine the po­tency and potential yield of plants by just looking at them.

A massive police force sur­prised Human on his farm, Wannebaai, near Warrenton in Febru­ary 2009. Police found dagga plants, up to two metres high, in buckets between trees in his garden.

A police helicopter also found a dagga plantation of about 100 plants, some of them as tall as three metres, on the farm. Pic­tures were taken by police, after which the plants were either burned or sprayed with poison. At the time the plants were esti­mated to have had a street value of R2.8 million.

The plants were not tested for THe (Tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient that is used to measure the potency in the plant. Although samples were taken by police, no reports were handed in during the court case.

Pictures
Geduld handed in a report he compiled after looking at the pic­tures taken at the scene by police and the affidavit handed in by the police expert.

He testified that it was near impossible to identify the variety by just looking at the plants and even harder to determine the THC content without using chemical analysis or a dichotomous key (used to determine identity of the plants).

Geduld told the court that although marijuana had several subspecies, including Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Ruderalis and Cannabis Indica, they are all very similar in structure and appearance

He added that the male and fe­male plants were very different, with the males being able to grow much higher, but having a much lower THC content as it did not have any flowers (where the majority of the THC is produced).

He said it is was very hard to determine what kind of yield the plants would have produced, as it is not clear if the majority were male or female. He further added that the bulk of the plantation, which included the leaves, roots and stems (which in this casewas very thick) contained a THC content so low that it was classifiedas a fibre-type of marijuana and had no psychoactive properties.

Geduld further said that he could not detect any floral buds on the pictures.

He also dismissed the police expert’s statement that the plants I were as close as one week away I from harvest as there were no close-up images to determine if the reproductive parts of the plants were deteriorating and thus ready for harvest. He said this could normally only be seen I under a microscope.

The case will continue today when Geduld will continue his testimony under cross examination by the State prosecutor, who requested time to examine the report Geduld compiled.