Married With Children – And with Lots Of Dope in Israel

A yeshiva student known as a Torah scholar and his wife were arrested for growing, possessing and dealing a large quantity of marijuana.

Married With Children – And Lots Of Dope
A yeshiva student known as a Torah scholar and his wife were arrested for growing, possessing and dealing a large quantity of marijuana.

Shmarya Rosenberg 

A married couple from the Israeli haredi city of Elad were arrested last week after police found 210 marijuana plants and 400 grams of the drug in their home, Ynet reported.

The 37-year-old yeshiva student and his 35-year-old wife kept the plants in their children’s room.

The yeshiva student claimed he had the drugs because they ease his pain. He claimed he that he had sought permission from the government to get medical marijuana but was denied.

In her defense, his wife told police that she had tried to stop her husband from growing the marijuana. She even bought a rabbit, she said, to eat them, but the rabbit didn’t do the job – although it did damage some of the plants, she claimed.

She told police she also threw out the pots that her husband used to grow the marijuana, which led to arguments between the two.

Elad is the only town in Israel officially designated an Orthodox municipality.

In 2003 police described Elad as “a hornets' nest of crime, brimming with growing domestic violence, vandalism, juvenile delinquency and traffic violations.”

Ha'aretz reported that "Elad's community lives cloistered within itself, disregarding the law, according to the police. This is reflected, for example, in the residents' indifference to traffic regulations.

"The religious-ethnic tension in Elad is high, frequently erupting in street brawls. The town's violence has increased by some 260 percent in the first half of the year, compared to the equivalent period in 2001, while domestic violence has increased by nearly 100 percent during the same period."

In 2004, police reported dealing with and unusually high rate of child neglect there.

The population of Elad had grown fourfold during the previous four years. In 2004 it stood at 25,000. 75 percent were children under the age of 14, 50 percent of the population was under six years old, Ha'aretz reported at the time.

Police believe the couple was dealing marijuana aa well as growing and using it.

Social services removed the family's three children and brought them to stay with the family's relatives.

The couple were brought before a magistrate who remanded them for three days. Unless the remand is extended, the couple should be released on bail Sunday.