Police who raided a house at 56 Le Grey Street in Bramley North, Johannesburg, on 5 December 2003 found a well-established dagga plantation in the back garden, seedlings in plastic containers and bags of harvested dagga.[1] The locked double garage had been turned into a greenhouse for organic cultivation, with overhead lights, fans, a temperature gauge, plants growing in tubs and harvested plants hanging from the roof beams; inside the house officers found a scale, dagga specimens and cigarettes, small packets of dried dagga and growing magazines.[1]

Police seized about 295 plants weighing 10 kilograms, with a stated street value of about R100,000, and arrested Andre Gerber, charging him with dealing in dagga.[1] Gerber said he was a habitual user growing for his own use, but on 21 April 2004 he pleaded guilty to unlawfully cultivating dagga on the property and was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment or a R6,000 fine, the whole suspended for five years.[1]