$375 fines

A Bridgetown magistrate has issued her second warning in a week, that using marijuana is still illegal in Barbados, despite the fact that discussion was ongoing about medicinal marijuana,

Acting Magistrate Anika Jackson presiding in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court made the remarks after two accused Roxanne Rosette Gill a 31-year-old hairdresser of Newton Crescent, Pine, St Michael and 57-year-old self-employed Anthony Hyvestra Blenman of Maxwell Coast Road, Christ Church were jointly charged with unlawfully having cannabis worth $10 on January 28. They both pleaded guilty.

Roxanne Rosette Gill and Anthony Hyvestra Blenman

When the matter was called, they appeared without counsel but the court was informed that attorney-at-law Mohia Ma’at was on his way to represent the duo.

According to the facts outlined by Prosecutor, PC Kenmore Phillips, police officers went to Newton Crescent, Pine, St Michael and saw a parked car with Blenman in the front passenger seat with the door open and Gill standing by the open door. When lawmen  approached the vehicle Gill removed a white cigarette from her mouth, put her hand in her pocket and then passed a white piece of paper to Blenman and started to walk away.

When asked to open the folded paper, police saw one greaseproof wrapping, one paper wrapping and a partially burnt cigarette with vegetable matter, suspected to be cannabis, and Blenman said “I tell she police coming to give me the spliff.”

The defence counsel submitted that the two were not charged together, adding that police came back for Gill about an hour after they had taken Blenmanaway.

In begging for leniency, Ma’at said that Gill is a mother of two and lived with her family including parents and siblings, and Blenman is a senior and his prior offences dated back to the 1980s.

The two apologised to the court.

The acting magistrate said that they were adults and ought to have known better. She fined them $375 each, payable in three months or on default, three months in jail.