I have not made one rappen from selling cannabis

As reported last week, the Zug Police discovered 800 cannabis plants growing indoors on a farm in Oberägeri at the beginning of this month. The farmer who set up the operation has since said he has not made one rappen from the operation.
 
It was actually on Tuesday 4 July that the farmer was arrested and held in custody for two weeks, not least for being in possession of 1.4 kilogrammes of cannabis, too. Not unsurprisingly, in a local community where everyone knows everyone else, the matter has been very much the topic of conversation.
 
Indeed, bearing in mind this latter point, how was it possible for such an operation to go on for months without anyone realising? And how did the police come to find out about it?
 
Answers were forthcoming (or not) from the farmer cannabis grower himself, who agreed to a telephone interview with a journalist of the Zuger Zeitung, so long as his name was not disclosed.
 
He began to tell, for example, how he started growing the cannabis on an industrial scale around six months ago. Contrary to what had previously been reported, the indoor plantation was set up on his own property. There was no absentee farmer landlord.
 
He went on to explain that, as a farmer, the gap between all the effort one had to put in and profitability was very narrow, and, because of all the work he already had, trying to pursue a second job elsewhere was out of the question. As he had heard the cannabis business was booming, he thought he would get involved. In fact he admitted he spent CHF 20.000 investing in it all but declined to say where he got the seeds from. In addition to classical cannabis horticulture, he had planned to go into the cannabidiol business, i.e. obtaining this non-psychoactive anti-inflammatory ingredient from the female plant. This CBD is a totally legal substance; indeed, many shops in Switzerland stock products made from it. “I really ought to have concentrated on this area from the start, but I never actually got any of the seeds; they are relatively expensive,” he added.
 
Of course, the farmer knew what he was doing was illegal, which is why he confessed to everything as soon as the police arrived. As to what had prompted them to come that day, he declined to reveal, but he did say neighbours, acquaintances and relatives knew nothing about it, and there never were any partners in business, nor customers.

As previously reported, the farmer could face a three-year prison sentence, but he is hoping for a fine. “I have not sold any of it and not made one rappen from it,” he assured, as he hoped this would be taken into consideration.
Looking to the future, once this case is out of the way, the farmer thought he might concentrate on this legal CBD business.
 
And did he grow cannabis for his own consumption?
“I don’t even know how to roll a joint,” he admitted.