U.S. citizen detained over cannabis only given permission for fiber plants

01 May 2019
U.S. citizen detained over cannabis only given permission for fiber plants
Marijuana plants in Ngunzun township near Mandalay on April 25. Photo: Aung Khaing Myae/Mizzima

A U.S. citizen and two Myanmar nationals detained last week for growing prohibited cannabis plants in central Myanmar were granted permission from the Mandalay regional government to grow only fiber plants for one year, the region’s chief minister said according to an RFA report.

The U.S. business owner, who his attorney said was operating the plantation with official permission, was arrested on April 2 with two others under the country’s Anti-Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substances Law for growing prohibited cannabis plants. Police were looking for a fourth man still at large.

Mandalay region chief minister Zaw Myint Maung told RFA’s Myanmar Service on April 28 that III M Global Nutraceutical Co. was given permission to grow fiber plants for one year, but the owners and workers have been arrested for growing cannabis on leased land in an industrial park in Ngunzun township, Myingyan district, in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region.