KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — A married couple landed in trouble with the police after they were discovered quietly growing cannabis plants in two pots on the balcony of their condominium in Air Itam here.

Northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Soffian Santong said the man, a 38-year-old petrol station manager, and his 36-year-old wife who works at a petrol station, are believed to have been growing the cannabis plants for about five months.

Both husband and wife have been remanded for six days to assist in investigations into the case under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

“We believe they planted the cannabis from seeds they obtained from cannabis they had bought as an experiment,” Soffian told a news conference here today.

Recounting the chronology of the arrest, Soffian said the man was first apprehended on the ground floor of the condominium early yesterday morning, with several packets of drugs, believed to be syabu and cannabis, found on his person.

Police raided the man’s home at a unit in the same condominium block and found more drugs within. They detained his wife next.

“Further investigations of the condominium unit revealed 13 packets of dried leaves in clear plastic bags believed to be cannabis and we found two pots of what we believed to be cannabis plants at the balcony,” Soffian said.

He said a total RM10,791 worth of drugs, consisting of cannabis and syabu, were seized from the condominium.

“The amount of drugs seized from the condominium can be distributed to 397 drug addicts,” he said.

Other assets such as a car and cash were also seized during the raid.

He said the couple later tested positive for drugs.

He said the couple is being investigated under Section 39A of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for possession of drugs.

“We are still investigating the case to see if they are trafficking the drugs,” he said.

Soffian said this is the second case this year to find suspects had experimented in planting cannabis at their premises.

“This is a criminal offence under Section 6B of the Dangerous Drugs Act which carries a mandatory life sentence and a minimum of six strokes of the rotan so our advice to those who were thinking to try this out for fun, not to do this,” he said.

He also asked that the public to immediately inform the police if they noticed any suspicious activities in their condominium or neighbourhood.