Labourer using ganja for back pain slapped with trafficking charge

Aug 06, 2019 News

Twenty-one year-old Keon Yhap was yesterday hauled before a city magistrate and made to answer a trafficking of narcotics charge after a police raid unearthed a quantity of marijuana in his pants pocket.
The man, who was not represented by an attorney, informed the court that he resides in Stevedore Housing Scheme, Georgetown. He admitted to the offence after the charge was read to him.
It is alleged that on August 3, 2019 at Leopold Street, Werk-en-Rust, he had in his possession 22 grams of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.
The charge was read to him in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts by Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus.
Facts of the charge presented by Police Prosecutor Adunni Inniss indicated that on the day in question at about 11:45hrs, ranks from the Brickdam Police Station carried out a raid at the location mentioned in the charge.
The ranks made contact with the defendant and identified themselves. Yhap was asked to have a search conducted on his person and a black plastic bag was found in his right side back pants pocket.
The plastic bag had 25 small Ziploc bags containing stems, leaves and seeds suspected to be cannabis. Yhap was shown the items, told of the allegation and cautioned.
He was then arrested and taken to the Brickdam Police Station where the articles were weighed and tested in his presence and he was subsequently charged for the offence.
A probation report highlighted that the defendant uses the marijuana for relaxation and as medicine for a back pain he suffers as a result of the work that he does. It was also noted that he is the sole breadwinner for his home.
Based on the information placed before the court, the magistrate decided to treat the matter as a case of possession of narcotics instead of trafficking. She ordered that Yhap be released on $10,000 bail and attend counselling sessions.
The defendant is to return to court on September 23.

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