By Kenton X. Chance
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Nov 1, CMC -An attorney has spoken of the “hypocrisy” surrounding marijuana use in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as it celebrates the first-ever Cannabliss Festival this weekend.
Attorney Grant Connell told the Serious Offences Court that traditional growers of marijuana continue to suffer, even as people who once looked down on them are getting rich off the plant, selling it legally.
Connell said the winds of change have blown for cannabis but it is only blowing in the sail of those who have money, adding “that’s the unfortunate thing.
“The traditional farmer so, the bourge dey over dey, the ones who used to look down on the growers of that. But watch now, Cannabliss. If I go Cannabliss, I would be the biggest hypocrite.”
Cannabliss, which is organised by the Medicinal Cannabis Authority (MCA), a government agency, s taking place until Sunday at the Arnos Vale Sporting Complex.
“This event will promote inclusivity and raise awareness about the cannabis plant’s diverse benefits and uses,” the state-owned Agency for Public Information (API) said in a press release, adding that the festival includes “a lineup of activities aimed at exploring the science, culture, and community aspects of cannabis”.
Connell, speaking in court late last week on behalf of four Trinidadians who were nabbed with 240 pounds of marijuana in Petit Bordel on October 3.
Connell told the court that the Trinidadians — Damian Baptiste aka Tall Boy, 29, Shaqkeim Bolah aka Myng, 21, Isaiah Phillips aka Izee, 23, and Jayron Abraham aka Fat Boy, 21 – had come to St. Vincent and the Grenadines illegally eight months earlier to learn to grow marijuana.
Senior Magistrate Collin John, who presided over the matter, halved the weight of the marijuana, noting that the complete plants with stalks and stems were before the court.
He ordered each of the men to pay a fine of EC$25,000 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) or spend one year in prison.
In his mitigation, Connell noted that the marijuana was grown locally.
“I happen to pass them downstairs. The smell alone will tell you the quality,” he told the court.
“But it highlights the hypocrisy because on one end, you have all this cannabis in court and the prosecution I’m sure, will ask to impose a fine of EC$100,000 or jail them or three years.
“On the other end, you have Cannabliss Fest going on somewhere out so. The funny thing is the Cannabliss Fest is not going to make EC$100,000 but when these four Trinidadians go to jail under the eyes of SOP (Superintendent of Police)Bailey, who is already stretched, is EC$15,000 for each of them to maintain them round there. That is EC$60,000 a year.
“And you want them to go for three years, that is EC$180,000, EC$80,000 more than Cannabliss making,” he said, speculating about the prosecution submission to the court.
“So, the very herb, the very plant that ministers celebrate that last 50 years of the farming and growing of the herb, those who lost their lives at sea, mothers who lost their sons, aunties, brother, etc., those who were termed drugs men, the names, I can call them but we know them all, they were called drugs men by those who are the Christopher Columbuses of ganja land now,” Connell said.
He told the court that people who used to refer to traditional marijuana farmers as ganja men are now “the biggest growers”.
“Ganja gone bourge. These types must go to jail and the other type must make all the money.”
Connell said that the cannabis before the court was “very powerful, medicinal” but the prosecutor would ask the court to order that it be destroyed.
“To destroy good herb that can go out at Cannabliss. So, the whole system turn a joke,” the lawyer said.
He argued that while the prosecution had charged the Trinidadians for possession of 240 pounds of marijuana, three-quarters of it was stick.
“So, the prosecution wants the court to add to the hypocrisy of the entire system to jail the men for sticking in ganja land. St. Vincent is ganja land. Everybody coming here now.”
Connell said he was asked about 10 years ago “by a very influential person in St. Vincent; in fact, the most influential person in St. Vincent, ‘What you want me to do, counsel, smoke weed?’
“Yes! It is the only thing that set us apart from the rest of the Caribbean. The rest of the Caribbean has five stars, they have beaches, they have hotels, they have white sand beaches, they have casino, they have things we don’t have — prostitution; good stuff that we don’t have.
“But we have that,” he said, pointing to the marijuana.
“And the Trinidadians came here to learn to plant that and leave with some of it to go back. It is nothing to be ashamed of. They have broken the law, yes, but as Prosecutor Cato told me, he met somebody outside and he told him, ‘You know, sometimes, the law is an ass.’
“Because in 2018 or thereabout the maximum sentence for possession of cannabis was three years. And then they changed it to seven years. You have to wonder about those who make and change the law.”
In his submission on sentencing, Cato told the court that he had no intention of asking that the four Trinidadians be sent to prison.
However, he said he did not agree that the court should impose a suspended sentence and deport the men, as Connell had suggested.
“What message are you sending to the public?” the prosecutor said.
CMC/kc/ir/2024