Idealist elderly marijuana farmer escapes punishment, may appeal guilty verdict

The court in Leeuwarden has found Doede de Jong, the 66 year old marijuana farmer from Appelscha, guilty of illegal cannabis cultivation in the appeal on Thursday. He did not, however, get any form of punishment. The Public Prosecutor demanded 180 hours of community service and a conditional prison sentence of two months against him. The judge found that De Jong is guilty on three points, but there is enough special circumstances not to impose penalty, Omrop Fryslan reports. These include that he was not cultivating cannabis to become rich, that he did so in a clean and organic manner and that he delivered the marijuana to a tolerated coffee shop. De Jong will appeal against the guilty verdict. He finds it hypocritical that cannabis may be sold in the Netherlands, but not cultivated. He maintains that his way of cannabis cultivation - without any harmful chemicals and without stealing power - should not be illegal. The idealistic farmer told Omrop Fryslan that this ruling has given him hopes for another court case which appeal is still ongoing. In 2014 the court sentenced him to 100 hours of community service, a conditional prison sentence of 2 months and a fine of 230 thousand euros.