Yeshiva student's marijuana garden

Wife says she was opposed to habit, brought rabbit into house in bid to destroy plants

Police on Wednesday arrested a married couple from the city of Elad after a search of their home revealed more than 200 marijuana plants and hundreds of grams of the drug.

The woman claimed in her defense that she had tried to prevent her husband from growing the plants, and even bought a rabbit to eat them, but to no avail.

The husband, a 37-year-old yeshiva student and his 35-year-old wife were arrested over suspicions of growing and dealing drugs. Rosh Ha'Ayin police who raided the family home found 210 potted marijuana plants in the children's room. Some 400 grams of the drug itself were also discovered.

During the investigation the suspect said that he is considered a torah scholar but as he suffers from aches and pains he smokes the drug, which eases his suffering. He even sought approval to use the drug for medicinal purposes but was refused.

Rabbit makes some headway

The wife denied the charges and claimed that she was against growing the drugs and using them. She noted that she had argued with her husband over the matter and even brought home a rabbit, hoping it would eat the plants.

The rabbit did make some headway – damaging some of the plants. She said that she even threw out the pots that her husband used to grow the drugs in, an issue which led to arguments between the two. Nevertheless, she preferred not to report the matter to police.

Following the arrest, social services took the family's three children to relatives while the husband and wife were brought before the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court, where they were remanded for three days.