A 60-year-old man from Kharkiv Oblast has been formally notified that he is suspected of illegally growing cannabis, the National Police said.[1] According to the pre-trial investigation, the man found the wild cannabis plants already growing on his own household plot and watered and fertilised them through the summer.[1] In September, during an authorised search of the property, police officers found and seized more than 30 cannabis plants from the man.[1]

Investigators from police department No. 1 of the Kharkiv District Police Department No. 2 issued him the notice of suspicion under the procedural guidance of the Kharkiv District Prosecutor’s Office.[2] The case is at the pre-trial investigation stage.[2] The suspicion concerns a criminal misdemeanour under Part 1 of Article 310 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, which covers the sowing or growing of opium poppy or cannabis.[2] In Ukrainian law, a criminal misdemeanour is a less serious category of offence than a crime.[2]