TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A university student in Taiwan was arrested for selling marijuana on social media and is now facing a penalty of seven years in jail or life imprisonment, reported the China Times.

The suspect is a 22-year-old student surnamed Wu (吳). He was found selling 1 gram of marijuana for NT$1,200 on a closed Facebook group by a policeman, who then pretended to be a customer and arrested him at Beitou MRT station.

Police later confiscated a cannabis plant at Wu's house, which he admitted to having planted three months ago after bringing the seed back to Taiwan from an overseas trip.

Wu said he took the risk of selling drugs due to economic difficulties and because he couldn't suffer pressure from studying and working at the same time.

In Taiwan, marijuana is considered as a class-2 narcotic. Those who are found guilty of manufacturing, transporting, or selling class-2 narcotics will receive a prison sentence of between seven years and life, and also have to pay an NT$10 million (US$328,663) fine, the report said.