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for allegedly cultivating more than 1 800 mbanje plants.
The street value was, however, yesterday still to be ascertained. The officer commanding Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Matabeleland South, Superintendent Wonder Mavhudzi, said the suspects, Issau Moyo (56), the village head, and Bhekimpilo Sikhosana (43), were arrested during an early morning raid.
“We picked information during the Easter holiday that the two men were cultivating dagga. We then mobilised our resources and deployed our officers from CID and they raided the homestead of one of the suspects and he led them to a field along Mtshabezi River where they found 1 863 plants of mbanje measuring between 2cm and 150 cm tall,” he said.
Supt Mavhudzi said they also discovered a nursery where there were about 600 plants in a swampy area.
The two men were arrested and the plants uprooted and taken to the Matabeleland South police provincial headquarters where they are being kept as an exhibit.
When a Chronicle news crew visited the police station yesterday afternoon, police were busy off-loading the plants from their vehicle into the storeroom.
The visibly shocked suspects were paraded at the police camp with hundreds of their plants.
Sikhosana, who was putting on a jacket and a trouser, looked so devastated with his left hand stuck in a “thicket” of mbanje plants.
His accomplice, Moyo, who was wearing a T-shirt and a tracksuit bottom, stood mesmerised while clutching on a bunch of fully matured dagga.
Supt Mavhudzi said they were still investigating to establish the market which the pair was supplying.
The suspects are expected to appear in court soon.
According to Wikipedia, mbanje also known scientifically as cannabis or marijuana, is a popular recreational drug around the world, only behind alcohol, caffeine and tobacco and affects perception and most notably, mood.
The most common short-term physical and neurological effects include increased heart rate, lowered blood pressure, impairment of short-term and working memory, psychomotor co-ordination and concentration.
Deaths associated to mbanje overdose are exceptionally rare.
Fatalities resulting from mbanje overdose are said to often occur after intravenous injection of hashish oil.
Online Reporter