Cocaine user promises to turn new leaf

After admitting to possession of cocaine and paraphernalia used to smoke the substance, a 42-year-old man sought to assure that he would not “get caught with it again”.

Prince Edmund Nurse, of no fixed place of abode, made the promise as he pleaded with Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes not to send him to jail in connection with the two offences.

Weekes had heard that police were on mobile patrol along Mason Hall Street, The City on February 21 when they saw Nurse. They stopped to make enquiries in connection with another matter and he began fidgeting with his pants pocket.

A search was requested and granted and the crystalline substance and a small bottle, outfitted with mesh to one end containing residue, were found.

“I was now about to smoke that,” Nurse said when asked about the 0.36 grammes of cocaine.

“I does use this to smoke,” he further explained in reference to the bottle.

When he appeared in court, he sought the Chief Magistrate’s mercy.

“I beg you to put me on a bond and I will not get ketch with no drugs no more,” said Nurse who already had four convictions to his name, most of a similar nature.

“I plan to stop. I will not get ketch again. I swear to God I will not get ketch again. Please don’t send me to jail, please Sir,” he pleaded.

His plea did not fall on deaf ears as Magistrate Weekes imposed a three-month prison term which will be suspended for 18 months on the cocaine possession charge.

He was convicted, reprimanded and discharged for the offence of possession of apparatus.