{"id":7615,"date":"2010-04-12T07:52:54","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T13:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/?p=7615"},"modified":"2010-04-12T12:31:38","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T18:31:38","slug":"my-doctor-recommended-it-rastafarian-tells-magistrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/crime-court-law\/my-doctor-recommended-it-rastafarian-tells-magistrate\/","title":{"rendered":"My doctor recommended it – Rastafarian tells magistrate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sampson Baptiste of Layou Park can consider himself lucky after he received a mere reprimand, after pleading guilty to the possession and intent to supply 145 grams of cannabis.<\/p>\n

Baptise told Magistrate Ossie Lewis last week that he used the cannabis as a medication, since it was prescribed by his doctor after an incident which caused a laceration to his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to use the spliff, but my doctor recommend the chalice, it\u2019s better for me,\u201d he told the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing that for the past 30 years … Since I get the blow in my head, the head kinda shaky,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The defendant\u2019s family revealed that Bapiste has a mental history, according to the facts of the case.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said that on April 2, 2010, at about 10 a.m. Constable Defoe and other police officers were on patrol duty in Layou Park, when they met the defendant in a wooden structure. Upon approaching the structure the officers detected a strong smell of cannabis smoke. Upon further investigations, they saw the defendant smoking the illegal substance.<\/p>\n

Baptiste assured Magistrate Lewis that he never sold or intended to sell the cannabis. Baptiste, who is a Rastafarian, said that before the doctor recommended the illegal drug to him he only used it for religious purposes.<\/p>\n

– Hermisha Rolle, Staff reporter<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sampson Baptiste of Layou Park can consider himself lucky after he received a mere reprimand, after pleading guilty to the possession and intent to supply 145 grams of cannabis. Baptise told Magistrate Ossie Lewis last week that he used the…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-court-law"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMy doctor recommended it - Rastafarian tells magistrate - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/crime-court-law\/my-doctor-recommended-it-rastafarian-tells-magistrate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My doctor recommended it - Rastafarian tells magistrate - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sampson Baptiste of Layou Park can consider himself lucky after he received a mere reprimand, after pleading guilty to the possession and intent to supply 145 grams of cannabis. 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