Karo
More actions
| Karo | |
|---|---|
| Kabupaten Karo | |
| Regency | |
| General | |
| Coordinates | 3.10, 98.34 |
| Country | Indonesia |
| Province/State | North Sumatra |
| Administration | |
| Capital | Kabanjahe |
| Cannabis documentation | |
| Growing regions | 0 |
| Growing areas | 0 |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 1 |
| Eradication campaigns | 0 |
| News items | 0 |
| Research items | 0 |
Karo (Kabupaten Karo) is a regency (kabupaten) of North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the Karo highland plateau on the northern rim of the Lake Toba caldera. Its capital is Kabanjahe; the market and resort town of Berastagi sits at about 1,300 metres on the plateau.
Karo carries the longest documented cannabis record of any North Sumatra regency.[citation needed] A herbarium specimen collected near Berastagi in 1919 is the only cannabis collection from Sumatra recorded in GBIF,[1] colonial courts in Medan tried Karo farmers for cannabis cultivation in 1935,[2] and police reported nine or more small cultivation cases in the regency's highland subdistricts between 2022 and 2026. Continuity between these layers of the record is not established; each is documented separately below.
Geography
The regency occupies a volcanic highland plateau between roughly 1,200 and 1,400 metres, with Mount Sinabung on its western side. The cannabis enforcement record maps onto this terrain: the 1919 specimen was collected at about 1,300 metres on the plateau,[3] the 2025 Sibuatan forest field stood in hill forest near Merek,[4] and the 2026 anchor case sat inside protected forest on the slopes of Mount Sinabung.[5] Karo is a vegetable-farming belt; cannabis finds in the regency have come from plots of chilli, ginger and mixed field crops (see below).
Cannabis in Karo
Historical record
The earliest physical record is the herbarium sheet Lörzing 6821 (1919), collected by J.A. Lörzing on the Karo plateau near Berastagi on 23 July 1919 and held by the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.[3] GBIF records it as the sole preserved cannabis specimen from Sumatra.[1] The record fixes a locality, a date and an elevation; it does not establish whether the plant was cultivated, spontaneous or an escape.
Prosecutions under the colonial narcotics ordinance reached Karo farmers in 1935. In April of that year De Sumatra Post reported a prohibited cannabis planting in the Kabanjahe area,[6] and in August the paper reported the trial of two Karo farmers from kampong Hadji Djahe whose plot had yielded 23.5 kg of dried cannabis. The paper wrote that the men told the court they had not known the plants were Indian hemp, saying the seed had arrived mixed with vegetable seed and that the plants thickened their fence; the court called the account far from credible and fined each man 25 guilders or two weeks' detention.[2] A third Karo farmer stood trial that September for a crop that had yielded 25 kg, with the paper noting the defence ran "as in previous similar cases".[7] These reports document enforcement and court practice in the colonial period; they are not evidence of the scale or age of cultivation in the highlands.
Modern enforcement record
Police reporting between 2022 and 2026 shows a dense cluster of small cultivation cases across the regency's subdistricts. In January 2022 police announced two fields at Desa Seberaya, Tigapanah district, totalling 492 plants across growth stages, with two men arrested.[8] A June 2025 roadside arrest led police to 37 plants at Desa Lingga, Simpang Empat district.[9] In October 2025 a joint police and army team destroyed a field of about 400 plants, some three metres tall, in the Sibuatan forest hills of Merek district.[4]
Reported finds accelerated through 2026: 33 plants inside a chilli plantation at Desa Cinta Rakyat, Merdeka district, in February;[10] 75 plants hidden in a ginger-farming zone at the edge of protected forest at Desa Kutarayat, Naman Teran district, in April, with four arrests;[5] six plants in a swamp plot in the same village twenty days later;[11] eight plants weighing 8.8 kg wet at Desa Partibi Lama, Merek district, in May;[12] 14 plants at a plot in Desa Rumah Berastagi, Berastagi district, in the same month;[13] and 19 plants, five of them potted, at farmland of Desa Sukatendel, Tiganderket district, in July.[14]
Across these cases the reported pattern is consistent: single farmers or small groups, plots of single digits to a few hundred plants, cannabis grown among or disguised by legitimate crops and discovery through community tips.[original research?] No Karo case in this record approaches the hectare-scale complexes reported from Mandailing Natal.[original research?]
Growing Areas
No growing areas documented yet.
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Priority | Collected | Locality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lörzing 6821 (1919) | Lörzing 6821 herbarium specimen, Berastagi (1919) | 23 July 1919 |
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Occurrence 2513890865: Cannabis sativa L." GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Bataksche Indische hennepplanters. Die zich van den domme hielden". De Sumatra Post (in Nederlands). 27 August 1935 – via Delpher.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Specimen L.1592671". Naturalis Bioportal. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Polres Tanah Karo Bongkar Ladang Ganja di Perbukitan Pancur Batu, 400 Batang Tanaman Dimusnahkan". Tribratanews Polda Sumut (in Bahasa Indonesia). October 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Polisi Temukan Kebun Ganja di Kawasan Hutan Lindung Karo, 4 Orang Ditangkap". detikNews (in Bahasa Indonesia). 18 April 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ "Gandja of Indische hennep. Verboden aanplant". De Sumatra Post (in Nederlands). 23 April 1935 – via Delpher.
- ↑ "Bataksche Indische hennep-planter". De Sumatra Post (in Nederlands). 25 September 1935 – via Delpher.
- ↑ "Polisi Tangkap 2 Pengedar Ganja di Tanah Karo, Punya 2 Ladang Ganja". Kompas.com (in Bahasa Indonesia). 7 January 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ "Panen Ladang Ganja Siap Dijual Kepergok Digerebek Polisi, Dua Pelaku Diringkus, TKP: Desa Lingga". Karosatuklik (in Bahasa Indonesia). 15 June 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ "Polisi Ungkap Ladang Berisi 33 Batang Ganja di Karo, Petani Ditangkap". detikSumut (in Bahasa Indonesia). 9 February 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ "Rumah dan Rawa Jadi Saksi Bisu, Petani Ganja di Naman Teran Tak Berkutik Ditangkap". InfoSumut24 (in Bahasa Indonesia). 30 April 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ "Delapan Batang Ganja Ditemukan di Ladang Warga Merek, Polres Karo Amankan Satu Tersangka". Radar Metro (in Bahasa Indonesia). May 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ "Nekat Tanam 14 Batang Ganja di Ladang, Seorang Lansia di Berastagi Tak Berkutik Ditangkap Polisi". Analisa Daily (in Bahasa Indonesia). 29 May 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ "Polisi Temukan Ladang Ganja Tersembunyi di Perladangan Sukatendel". DNA Berita (in Bahasa Indonesia). 26 July 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.