Derek Achong

Four San­ta Cruz men were each fined $6,800 for pos­ses­sion of 68 pack­ets of mar­i­jua­na. Ja­son Scot­land, Sel Charles and broth­ers Ja­son and Sher­win Bostic were found guilty of pos­sess­ing a to­tal of 163.9 grammes of mar­i­jua­na by Mag­is­trate Bri­an Dabideen in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court on Fri­day. Their lawyer Patrick God­son-Phillip told the court that the men were Bobo Shan­ti Rasta­far­i­ans, who sold nuts on the high­way. He claimed that the il­le­gal drug was part of their re­li­gion and was used in rit­u­als.

Dabideen said: "Al­though it may be your re­li­gion, mar­i­jua­na is still il­le­gal in T&T." "Un­til Par­lia­ment changes the law re­lat­ing to the drug, it is still an of­fense and must be pun­ished," he added. The men were ar­rest­ed by po­lice, ex­e­cut­ing a search war­rant, on Feb­ru­ary 26, 2007 at a house in San­ta Cruz. Dabideen gave the men five months to pay the fine or face 18 months hard labour. The mat­ter was pros­e­cut­ed by Sgt An­der­son Gon­za­les.