‘Dr Ganja’ escapes gallows, gets nine years’ jail

SHAH ALAM: A retired soldier known as “Dr Ganja” escaped the gallows after the High Court amended the 16 charges against him for trafficking 77.48493kg and 14.647 litres of drugs to possession.

Captain (R) Amiruddin @ Nadarajan Abdullah, 64, also faced 18 counts of cultivating marijuana plants, four counts of possessing marijuana and one for ingesting the drug.

Judge Julia Ibrahim handed down the nine-year jail sentence for the 39 charges for the offences which took place in a house in Kampung Delek Dalam, Klang at 12.30pm on May 26, 2017.

Amiruddin was charged under Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, as well as Sections 39A(1), 39A(2) and 15(1)(a) of the same Act.

He was sentenced to five years imprisonment for each of the charges under Section 6 and Section 39A(1) and nine years for the Section 39A(2) offence and six months for the one under Section 15(1)(a).

Judge Julia on Monday (July 23) ordered the sentences to run concurrently starting from the date of his arrest on May 26, 2017, and for him to be released from prison today, as he had already served a third of his sentence.

In her final judgement, Julia said, as a former army personnel Amiruddin surely knew of the existence of the Dangerous Drugs Act but he was desperate to use the marijuana as an alternative treatment for his ailment.