Hemp grower detected because he set fire to his house

A 44-year-old Swiss didn’t extinguish his cigarette properly and thereby set his house on fire. Police officers arrived at the site a short time later – and made an interesting discovery.

The 44-year-old Swiss has no idea how much his carelessness would cost him when he smoked a cigarette and threw the glowing butt into a plastic container on 23 November 2019. The Fohn wind was blowing as the middle-aged man got into his car and probably didn't think about the cigarette he was sure he had extinguished.

It took less than an hour and a half for the glowing tobacco residue in the container to eat its way through the rubbish in the waste bin and spread to the house façade, when the fire became visible, and a neighbour reported this to the Operations Centre of the Zug police at 3.08 p.m.

Use of drugs proven
There was some luck in misfortune, however - the fire brigade brought the fire under control before the whole house fell victim to the flames. Nevertheless, the incident caused property damage of CHF 100,300, for which the 44-year-old is responsible. It is more than questionable whether the insurance company will take over responsibility for the damage without carrying out a regress on the person who caused the fire.

But the problem was not only that could he have “easily avoided this by properly extinguishing the cigarette butt more carefully (...)” as the Zug Prosecutor's Office states in a criminal order that has recently been open to the public. At the time of the fire, the 44-year-old was also under the influence of drugs. The Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Zurich demonstrated the use of cannabis with a chemical-toxicological report.

The marijuana was probably from his own production
In all likelihood, the marijuana he had smoked on the night of November 23 was from his own production. When the Zug police arrive at the scene, the first thing that the police officer noticed was the outdoor hemp plantation that the 44-year-old had laid out on the property.

Following a search of the house, the officers secured 9 marijuana plants, 13 hemp shrubs and more than 500 hemp seeds. Two cupboards in the studio contained a glass and a metal can full of cannabis. In addition, various accessories and equipment, such as a hemp mill and a lamp, were also found. But the biggest find was made by the officials on the attic. The supply of the hemp grower was hidden in a niche there: 882.5 grams of marijuana, divided into 15 jars.

The Zug Public Prosecutor's Office sentenced the Swiss to a conditional fine of 65 daily rates of CHF 70 francs and a fine of CHF 1,550 for negligently causing a fire, driving in an incapacitated state and violating the Narcotics Act. He has to pay the latter – along with the CHF 2,613.70 for the investigation costs. As I said, carelessness can be expensive!