A young man from Newtown has maintained that though he pleading guilty to the possession of a quantity of cannabis he was not the real owner of the substance.
Jason Cuffy told a Roseau Magistrate’s court Thursday morning that even after pleading guilty to possession of cannabis “the plastic bag of weed wasn’t mine for real. I guilty of smoking but I not guilty of having the plastic bag”.
According to the facts of the case presented by the police prosecutor, at about 4 p.m. on August 31, 2010, Sergeant A Lawrence and other members of the drug squad were on mobile patrol on Victoria Street when they saw a number of young men gathered in an area close to the sea.
Sergeant Lawrence noticed the defendant sitting on a piece of concrete with a pair of black scissors in his hand and holding a clear plastic with a green substance.
Upon seeing the police, he threw the bag away. Police approached him, seized the pair of scissors and asked him what he had thrown.
“It’s not my own. There have so many people there. Is not my own,” he said.
Upon being searched, police found two packets of wrappers in his pocket.
“I see you come here before for the same thing and you are here again… I see the magistrate warned you… How you end up in the same thing… You obviously not learning… If you come back here for that I will send you straight to prison,” Magistrate Candia George said before passing sentence.
Cuffy was fined $500 to be paid by September 30 or he will spend one month in prison.
that’s why i na goin n claim no man weed for them n then aft me that is d big assets n jail enough….not takin no jail for money……bull ship work…..
dominica overflowing with ganja
So okay then bags of weed keep falling from the skies, watch out!! and becarefull where you walk people.
@wisdom: look wisdumb, please spare us your wisdumb and fool-ish-ness
@SHAN: So Shan being caught near a bag police claimed to see him throw away is way worse than another stealing something that doesn’t belong to him?
I never knew that scissors were illegal, and a child can buy wrappers in ANY country except here, not sure why paper is illegal either, but I do know that stealing is stealing period! No matter the circumstance……
Is it me, but that weed looks to be half decent…Cant really know untill you smoke it though… Leave the herbs alone…Concentrate on the real destroyer of our people: the crack & cocaine…
Ok, so who did the weed belong to? Please elaborate!!!
HOLD ON A MINUTE!!! So the man that stole the flashlight cause he living with his 75 year old grand father in a house with no lights got 3 months in jail!! and this fool got off for $500 with a warning? what that saying? is majee i seeing there u know.
I long to see the day when these rum drinkers and pill takers stop the hypocrisy and leave herbalist alone in Dominica. Do something about it Skerrit and crew. Check out this link below to see how far ahead of our small mind thinking other HUMANS are. They advertising it on TV and we jailing our citizens for it. What year do you think that will happen in Dominica?
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/medical-marijuana-commercial-airs-california/story?id=11547326
@CHIEF SCOUT COMMISSIONER:
Did you just blame over half o dominican society’s problem on drugs? lol its no wonder there’s no solution because if thats the way the people trying to resolve the situation are thinking then we will get nowhere. We have to start with the family, the education system, our culture, our mentality our whole way of thinking needs to change. Take for example the lack of appreciation for arts in this country. If more children were into arts then they would have something to take up their free time instead of getting into drugs or crime in the first place.
These women magistrates in Dominica think the Justice System in Dominica is a JOKE. I have read a number of cases and I can not believe the outcomeof those cases. How can you fine a young man $500 for possession of a bag of marijuana; then, set bail at $5,000 for a man who called a policeman a ‘tebeh’? There are a number of serious crimes being committed in Dominica; however, the punishments handed by these magistrates only encourages more crime in the country. We need magistrates (like Emmannuel – ‘you follow’) like those from the 1980’s in order to take back our country fromn those criminals.
why should those who import aDn sell the crack and coke get away with it and someone who smoke a little weed go to jail, you Dominicans are so unjust but then AGAIN YOU HAVE YOUR REASONS WHY YOU SO HARD ON WEED, LESS MONEY IS MADE FROM IT?
While marijuana (cannabis sativa) does possess some medicinal properties, the conditions under which the smoking and possession of marijuana come to the attention of the police are simply not medicinal. Notwithstanding the stances taken by some persons, marijuana is a drug and should be deemed as such.
The price that Dominica pays for not systematically addressing the drug problem is seen on the streets of Roseau, the lack-lustre atmosphere in the villages, the absenteeism both in the Public and Private sector workplaces, the unacceptably deviant behaviour in both primary and secondary schools, the domestic and public violence, the reduced quality and volume in production, the road and workplace accidents and the poor judgment exhibited in decision making in managerial positions… and that is taking nothing away from the impossibly valiant efforts being made by Jacinta Bannis and her team at the National Drug Abuse Prevention Unit (NDAPU), the inderdiction work of Law Enforcement and others who labour in the drug abuse prevention vineyard.
legalize it
@wisdom: While i’m not promoting or supporting any drug habits, there have been proven health benefits from smoking cannabis & drinking tea made from the leaves of the hemp plant. It is a powerful pain reliever (ask anybody with multiple Sclerosis) & THC ( that’s one of the components of cannabis) is used to treat brain tumours. The list goes on & on.
Why do you think there are legal cannabis clinics & stores all over the U.S & Canada ?
Educate yourself before coming on here & ”spew your venom, ” as someone once said ;)
………………& thats my 2 cents.
tell dem young man go and find some honest hard work to do….and also utilize dere time doing someting constructive rather than smoking weed….why they cannot form a sports team for the young youths or teach them a skill or somting…but wen the young youths see this you think dats a good example they setting for them….we want to help our youths to grow up good but the moment the police catch somebody with weed with have alot of negative comments to say about the police….then how u expect the younger ones to grow up if we dont deal with this problem
t is so ashamed what w eas humans have become subject to. It is my opinion that all smoking should be banned period, an it should be noted that the choice to smoke cannabis was instigated by the authorities who promote smoking tobacco. there is a direct corolation between the two, it is not like neither is superior than the other, or simply put one might kill you faster than the other.
There are absolutely NO health benefits in smoking cannabis or tobacco except that it destroys your brain and makes you look old real fast, and while it is true the authorities cannot stop it propogation, yet the authorities can invoke massive national education campaigns on the evils of such dangerous behavior.
remember an aged rastafari was caught in the vicinity of bath road river street bridge with one spliff and the seven seals were opened on him , that system so not right…I have no faith in the two scales of justice and equality. But for a bag of weed $500.00 where the F$#@ is consistency
Police just wasting the courts time and tax payers money on this nonsense!