Leave out the herb, magistrate pleads

Acting Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes has made an impassioned plea for the “ignorance” to stop when it comes to marijuana and alcohol use.

“I want my black people to stop this ignorance. Smoking herb is a waste of time, it gets you nowhere,” he said, adding that the habit was “pulling down our race”.

The judicial officer in charge of the District ‘D’ Magistrates’ Court located at Cane Garden, St Thomas, made the call as he spoke candidly to 39-year-old Ronald Carlyle Mason who pleaded guilty to possession of the 11.9 grammes or $60 worth of cannabis that was discovered in the wee hours of this morning when police executed a search warrant at his Jury Road, Bridgefield, St Thomas residence.

A total of 43 greaseproof wrappings of the vegetable matter were found in a glass jar inside a laundry basket in his bedroom and in another jar on the floor in the same room, Sergeant St Clair Phillips said in reading the facts to the court.

Addressing the acting chief magistrate, Mason said he had only recently started dabbling with cannabis, but Weekes was not convinced.

“I ain’t buying that you now start selling dope. I look foolish to you?” Weekes asked before placing Mason on a six-month bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. If the bond is breached, Mason will have to pay the court a $1,000 forthwith fine or spend three months in prison.

Weekes then told Mason that he must endeavour to plant something legitimate or find an extra job, making it clear that the illegal drug was not the way to go.

“Alcohol mash up our race already; it is a fact that alcohol destroys our race. You know you young people [go to] every fete and want to drink out the bar? You know our grandparents did that foolishness back in the day? So you know the cycle come back ‘round and [now] they want to drink out the bar and smoke it out too?

“I tired of this man. Let we as black people pull ourselves together and move on. Stop with the ignorance,” Weekes said before closing the case.