Suspended Sentence For Growing Cannabis
39-year-old David Cunningham of Knapton Close Smith’s Parish escaped an immediate custodial sentence for his offence of cultivating and possessing cannabis.
Following submissions by Crown Prosecutor Nicole Smith and defence lawyer Charles Richardson, and after reading B.A.R.C and S.I.R. reports, Magistrate Khomisi Tokunbo sentenced Mr Cunningham to nine months in prison but suspended that sentence for eighteen months.
Mr Cunningham had earlier pleaded guilty to cultivating and possessing cannabis. Crown Prosecutor Smith reminded the Magistrate that Mr Cunningham had admitted to growing four plants that were identified as cannabis and also to having five seedlings that were too small to be positively identified by the Government analyst.
Ms Smith also reminded the Magistrate that the growing operation was in a specially laid out room-within-a-room and that this showed that there was a clear intent to conceal the growing activity. Pointing out that a custodial sentence for cultivation could be as high as ten years, the Crown asked for an immediate custodial sentence but one on the low end.
On behalf of his client, lawyer Charles Richardson admitted that the operation had been so carefully concealed that even Mr Cunningham’s father and fiancé who both lived at the same address, were unaware of the operation.
Mr Richardson said that the existence of just four plants confirmed his client’s assertion that he was growing the cannabis for personal use and not commercial exploitation.
Mr Richardson said that Mr Cunningham’s rationale for growing the cannabis was that it had become too expensive and dangerous to purchase cannabis on the street. Mr Richardson told the Magistrate that Mr Cunningham had become involved with cannabis when he was sixteen and had continued its use through college.
Mr Cunningham, speaking in his own defence, said that he apologized and was sorry for the embarrassment he had brought to his fiancé and family.
In passing sentence, Magistrate Tokunbo said that in cases of cultivation, the four plants were the smallest number that he had dealt with. He said that he accepted that the cultivation was for personal use but considered that Cunningham’s going to such great lengths to conceal the operation was an aggravating factor.
Commenting that the Legislature clearly intended that the offence of cultivation should carry a severe sentence, the Magistrate ordered the nine month custodial sentence but suspended it for eighteen months; and also imposed an eighteen month probation period.
Probation conditions were that Mr Cunningham must submit to random drug tests, abstain from the use of all illegal substances, and follow any and all other programs recommended by the Probation Department of Court Services.
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How is it an embarassment to smoke weed, but not an embarassment to get drunk….
Because smoking weed is illegal – getting caught breaking the law is embarrassing to some.
His lawyer probably told him to say that to get more of a lenient sentence. At least he didn’t go with the I have an addiction excuse.
Now Magistrate Tokunbo you have to let me and everyone off for 4 plants. I’ll have 2 plants at my house and 2 at my girl’s flat. Bring on the Herb Bda.
i agree
I don’t think he got let off. I think this gives him a criminal record & puts him on the stop list.
Not sure but maybe the expert can help.
Where are you enough? Are you ignoring me now? You can’t be mad at me taking pokes at you when you were doing the same. I need a question answered.
Does this guy get a criminal record for this?
I also wanna know if he get’s a record. Furthermore, if you choose to grow your own supply because getting weed on the street is too dangerous, expensive and/or scarce, maybe you need to slow down, or quit!
Some of you weed smokers smoke too often! Is it necessary to smoke weed everyday, multiple times a day? If you do, that is a serious problem, just like alcoholism, and you should get help.
I agree! I’ve known people who smoke themselves straight. I have no idea why someone would spend so much & then burn it all away so quickly. When I’ve been in Netherlands one J would last me the whole day & then one for a night cap. I usually end up having to check that I don’t have any left behind so I can go through BDA customs without worrying. If I find any left over before my return date I go to the nearest coffeeshop & give it all away well except for that last morning J before leaving for the airport. Its not worth the hassle smoking here when I’m not welcome to & have to constantly look over my shoulder. There are many countries that welcome herb smokers so they deserve my hard earned money.
At least in Amsterdam, it’s a vacation, and therefore not the usual amount of recreational substances are being consumed… Do we have to “party” everyday? What about our other responsibilities that we should be sober for? Moderation man, time and place…
Just checking but are you referring to me when you typed, “Moderation man, time and place…”? If so you misread my post because I typed, “Its not worth the hassle smoking here when I’m not welcome to & have to constantly look over my shoulder.” Here I refer to is Bermuda because I don’t smoke in Bermuda. I do smoke on vacation in Netherlands but I actually prefer Haarlem to Amsterdam because its more scenic & less tourist. Despite misconceptions Amsterdam is not the only place in Netherlands with cannabis cafés. I also don’t “party” all day when there I go sight seeing, to galleries, museums, zoos, concerts, parks, open air markets etc. Its really insulting to the dutch when someone thinks that all there is in Netherlands is cannabis cafés.
LOL no man, not you, I would not directly attack a poster. I’m speaking to anyone that needs to smoke marijuana everyday. That’s why I said “Do WE have to party everyday”. Sure you weren’t smoking? Just kidding
One love.
Yes there are other cities with coffee shops. It’s funny though, when I was in Amsterdam, there were so many locals that did NOT smoke, but they did enjoy the revenue in shopping malls, museums, etc., from all the tourists that it brought in. I did however read that their new conservative government has recently restricted coffee shops to local membership! That should be interesting for their tourism market.
Anyways, my main point is that marijuana should only be used occasionally, like anything else. That would disappoint many drug pushers though, I’m sure. Keep in mind that it is illegal, and it’s probably best to get a “natural high/cure” from another source…
It’s all good, I was just checking since your post was connected to mine. I probably would have taken it a bit better if I was mellowed out from a J. Then again I forgot to take my fish oils & calm supplement yesterday which I find are some better legal ways to relax as you pointed out exist. It’s true there’s no need to increase the chances of being cuffed by officers & getting a criminal record. I don’t know if the dollar amounts put out by BPS for cannabis seized are exact but if they are thats a lot of money to be paying to get high. That money if saved would definitely be enough for two trips a year to netherlands. That being said many who use cannabis here are teens who’s brains are still developing & should not be using it AT ALL if they want to keep their development steady. This just boils down to the taboo that prohibition has caused. This is why parents need to properly educate themselves about all drugs & in turn educate their kids so the only taboos they need to worry about are tattoos & piercing. For some parents to say drugs are bad & not give any solid reasons why is counterproductive.
It’s great that you’ve been to Netherlands & have seen that the misconceptions are not true. I would encourage anyone with enough funds to take a trip over there just to see how their way of living socially is a lot better & healthier than many other societies. I remember one of my dutch friends pointing out how almost all the homes there have huge glass windows in there living room & never pull their curtains. She told me this was the dutch way of showing all that they have nothing to hide & that they can all see what’s going on in their streets. I love looking in those windows & seeing smiling people waving at me & I’m not referring to the redlight ones for those who want to be facetious.
Netherlands new conservative government’s recent restriction of coffee shops to local membership is not a law but more of a suggestion. In Netherlands the government can’t make ANY country laws without full agreement from all the nations municipalities. A great way to keep their government in check IMO. The only municipality that has agreed to it & practices it as far as I know is Maastricht due to them trying to please bordering Belgium & also Germany & France. The rest of the municipalities have said they will not agree to such segregation promoting laws & have told Belgium, Germany & France if they don’t want their citizens coming to their country to partake either ban them or make coffeeshops in their own country. The majority of Netherlands realizes that if this law ever gets past in full it will cause underground drug rings to form & crime to rise. They are quite happy to have educated business men, police & government controlling their drug trade & not violent gangsters. It’s fun when in a coffee shop & the police come in to check that all is well since they are so polite & professional. Dank u well Netherlands! Houd rechtvaardigheid het gaan alstublieft! Lekker!
All in all thanks for the clarification Just One. Peace!
if he was growing his own supply…why is it assumed that he smokes every single day?
Suppose he didnt want to ever spend money and get involved with the underground drugs trade, so he setup a few plants to so he can hav a free smoke every now and then?
This guy went to college and is a career(has a music studio) and familyman(fiance) of good character according to the report so he doesn’t sound lazy or non-ambitious….guess he jus likes his herb…discreetly..
Tell me this, If you grow tomatoes in your back yard, do you eat them every day? or have the luxury of having free tomatoes at your leisure any time your heart pleases thru the months that you harvest them?
Wait…..before someone replies let me save the typing for you..”But tomatoes arent illegal to grow” right??? siiiigggghhhh
My boy smokes it 3 + times a day. His dad ask me if his bie was a junkie. Sorry dad can’t answer that. Hmmm so I’ll ask some of you out there in BDA. What you think and how many times a day make you have a serious problem?
Once a day unless you’re a retired millionaire. People have drinks after work & thats cool but you can’t drink all day. It’s the same ish different day. Then again if the police come knocking at your door any times a bad time.
The judge made the right ruling because Bermuda has much more serious isssues to deal with than this. Send im Westgate and make taxpayers pay out more money that we don’t have. For What?
For sure!
He’s lucky he didn’t get Archie Warner or he would have had the choice of a $20,000 fine or prison time.
Legalize & tax it!
We as a community should introduce a combination of the following (not exhaustive):
- Allow personal cultivation through licensing & weight quotas
- Decriminalise possession of a certain amount (i.e. 14grams)
- Regulate the distribution of marijuana using pharmacies or a secured facility where THC %’s are controlled and prices are significantly lower than street price
- Replace criminal convictions with psychiatric evaluations
The reality is that many Bermudians smoke and if the Government wants to stop people from smoking, they should go ahead and announce ‘The War on Bob Marley’.
Here’s the link to the UN Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy published in 2011: http://idpc.net/sites/default/files/library/Global_Commission_Report_English.pdf
If that doesn’t satisfy one’s requirement for authenticity, here is Sir Richard Branson’s take:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9031969/Sir-Richard-Branson-calls-for-end-to-war-on-drugs.html
Sir Richard Branson is the coolest especially on waterskis but Bermuda is to close to United States for them to allow legalization here. Them is the U.S. not BDA Canada tried full legalization for a summer & got embargoed by United States. So unless we start growing & raising all our own food we must stay as the states little……
I did not mention legalisation but rather certain controls that provide protection to harmless users and controls that allow for the safe and affordable purchase of a controlled substance.
Weed for many is a form of painkiller and while there are many legal alternatives, they all are synthetic and controlled by the big pharmaceuticals. Your point on satisfying the USA is noted however it comes at the expense of turning a blind eye to the local scenario. When one considers how many States in the USA have considered relaxing certain drug policies, it is worth exploring a Bermuda-specific approach to a perennial debate.
Point taken! I just mention the states to show the squeeze they put on other nations while practicing hypocrisy from one state to the next. As for the medical aspects of cannabis your preaching to the choir.
Maybe suspended sentence but still a conviction so there go his travel plans.
This guy went through all the trouble of the cloak & dagger to stay away from the criminal element just to get caught & labeled as a criminal. He should of just saved his money & took trips to Canada or Netherlands.
Ok so this is what u do. Get yourself a U.S. passport and social security number. Then u carry out the biggest possible gro-op u possibly can. Make your millions and when u get caught plead guilty, do the time, and u can still travel to the states as a citizen. Oh my bad, no us passport or ties. Well I guess
You have a problem then. Good thing I have that number and passport.
Forget the U.S. they can’t decide from state to state what the drug laws should be. Go to Canada, Portugal, Spain, Denmark or Netherlands because they won’t bother you as long as you don’t bother anyone else.
Right sentence imo still doesn’t change the fact the Tokunbo is incosistent(with the truth sometimes staring him in his face) both he and Nicole Smith are self haters with Nicole being very unprofessional
Maybe if Mr.Cunningham had been a missionary who some used the excuse that he forgot or didnt realize the severity of this offence or maybe even someone who works at the court and rubs shoulders with judges and or prosecuters he might have received an absolute or conditional discharge smh the truth is the truth and you to shall be prosecuted and judged one day good luck
At least he got a lawyer with some experience in the field.
Lol Rude Bwoy connections
Bermuda does still need to reduce the classification of the offense so that the USA won’t consider personal supply type weed offenders to be hardened criminals, and therefore no stop list just for a joint, for example.
Magic, put away the childish things. It is just not worth it.
I can’t believe in 2012 people are being prosecuted for growing herb for personal use. They need to decriminalize the use of this naturally grown plant.
What a shame cannabis is still illegal.
If the government really wanted to make money they would regulate and profit.
Last year Boulder Colorado made 7.4 million dollars alone on just licenses for people to use cannabis. That doesn’t include the additional money they made from a cultivating license.
It’s been medically proven that cannabis is not harmful to humans.
Stop crucifying tourists and Bermudians for something that isn’t even harmful to them.
Learn about cannabis the many benefits it has for humankind:
Hemp is one of the most robust, durable, natural soft fibres on the planet.
Up until 1883, and for thousands of years prior, Cannabis and Hemp was the largest agricultural crop in the world.
It had thousands of uses. It was found in virtually every product such as fabric, lighting oil, medicines, paper and fibre.
The first cannabis/marijuana law to exist in the United States (US) was the law enacted in Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619 which ordered farmers to grow hemp.
Benjamin Franklin used it to start one of the US’ first paper mills. The first two copies of the Declaration of Independence were written on cannabis hemp paper.
Up until the 1800’s most of the textiles in the United States were made with Hemp. Fifty percent of medicine in the last half of the 19th century was made from cannabis.
Even Queen Victoria used the resin extracts from cannabis to alleviate her menstrual cramps.
The interesting thing about industrial hemp is that you can’t get high from it yet it was lumped in with recreational cannabis which made little sense.
Cannabis became illegal because of public ignorance regarding the plant. In the early 20th century yellow journalism had surfaced. Articles were written depicting Blacks and Mexicans as frenzied beasts who would smoke cannabis, play devils music and heap disrespect and viscousness on the readership. A majority of which happened to be white.
Some offences included: looking at a white woman twice, laughing at a white person or even stepping on a white mans shadow.
This ended up leading to a law in the form of a tax stamp (1937). A tax stamp that would not only include cannabis but also hemp and cannabis medicines. It speculated that hemp’s potential for an abundance of new products was going to be in direct competition with other sources.
This, combined with the “Reefer Madness” journalism and ignorance of the time, led to the eventual downfall of all forms of Cannabis.
Popular Mechanics Magazine, in February 1938, had prepared an article titled “New Billion Dollar Crop”. Hemp was touted as being able to produce more than 5,000 textile products from its threadlike fibre and more than 25,000 products from its cellulose. Products ranged from dynamite to cellophane.
Its superiority as a source for paper was also becoming known. Especially with the development of hemp processing equipment.
The new marijuana tax act of 1937 was fine except for one thing: if you wanted to grow hemp you needed to buy a stamp.
But they weren’t giving any out to anyone. And so, in effect, all forms of cannabis became illegal.
Things stayed that way until World War II when the US Government decided that Hemp, once again, was a good thing. They even produced a wartime video promoting Hemp called “Hemp for Victory.”
But by the time the war was over Hemp again became the enemy and was made bad once more.
In 1948 when the marijuana law once again came into question, the US Congress recognised that marijuana and cannabis was made illegal for the wrong reasons. It didn’t make people violent at all. It made them pacifists.
They said the communists would use it to weaken Americas will to fight. Congress now voted to keep cannabis illegal for the exact opposite reason they had outlawed it in the first place.
Over the years report after report (The LeGuardia Committee Report 1944, US) (The Wootton Report 1968, England) (The Le Dain Report 1970, Canada) (The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs 1972, US)(The Shafer Report 1972, US) (Ganja in Jamaica: A Medical Anthropological Study of Chronic Marijuana Use 1975) (Cannabis in Costa Rica: A Study in Chronic Marijuana Use 1980) (CANNABIS: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy 2002, Canadian Senate Canada) commissioned by everyone from the Mayor of New York City to the President of the United States has come back with the view that cannabis/marijuana should have no criminal penalty attached to it.
Yet Cannabis/Marijuana remains as illegal today as it did nearly 70 years ago.
Why?
If prohibition is supposed to protect us the obvious question is: Does prohibition work?
“If prohibition worked, if you could just wave a magic wand and say ‘this is gone away’ I’d be all over it,” said former mayor of Vancouver (2002-2005) and former member of the RCMP Drug Squad and Canadian Senator Larry Campbell in an interview regarding cannabis. “But the fact of the matter is that prohibition has never worked.”
“Whether Cannabis is criminalised or decriminalised does not effect the rates of smoking cannabis of either uptake or discontinuation,” said British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall in an interview regarding Cannabis.
The 1974 Dr. Heath/Tulane Study on Cannabis said cannabis caused brain damage and killed monkeys in the tests. What they didn’t tell you is how the test was conducted.
Ronald Reagan announced that the most reliable scientific minds said permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of cannabis.
Monkeys pumped full of cannabis at 30 joints a day had begun to atrophy and die after 90 days. Brain damage was determined after counting the dead brain cells in both the monkeys who had been subjected to the cannabis and ones who had not.
This study became the foundation of the government and other special interest groups who claim cannabis kills brain cells.
Here’s what they didn’t tell you:
After six years of requests on how the study was conducted it was finally revealed.
Instead of administering 30 joints a day for one year Doctor Heath used a method of pumping 63 Columbian strength cannabis joints through a gas mask within five minutes over three months.
They suffocated the monkeys.
They put gas masks on the monkeys and they pumped the cannabis into it without additional oxygen.
After a certain period of time the brain shut down because they were suffocated due to lack of oxygen. They suffocated the monkeys then showed the dead brain cells and went on to say it was from the cannabis without telling people it was really from the suffocation and lack of oxygen.
That is the flawed study which millions of people draw their misguided and misinformed views on cannabis from.
Current studies on cannabis have showed no signs of any brain cell damage.
In 2005 Xia Zhang, University of Saskatchewan, reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation new research showed cannabis could possibly stimulate brain cell growth.
Another common belief which is wrong is: Cannabis causes lung cancer.
There are no cases of cancer caused from cannabis use alone.
Cannabis does paralyse the cilia in the lungs, but if it’s not radioactive you aren’t going to get cancer from it. Smoking it is harmful because of the properties of smoke, not as a result of anything in the cannabis plant but because they are intaking heated plant matter into their lungs.
Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School says cannabis is okay and in an interview regarding cannabis he said: “People said you can’t tell if it causes cancer because we haven’t been smoking it long enough. They said ‘look what happened with cigarettes’.
“But at this point we’ve had over four decades of experience with cannabis. If this were gonna show up, it should have shown up by now.”
Recenlty Dr. Donald Tashkin of UCLA published the results of his study (Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Controlled Study) which conclusively found and stated cannabis was far different from nicotine and that Cannabis does not cause lung cancer. Unlike tobacco smoke which does cause cancer. There are no cases of cannabis only smokers getting brown lung syndrome. There are no cases of cannabis only smokers getting emphysema.
If cannabis is supposedly so dangerous how come there are no harmful medical side effects from doing it?
If you take a look at straight deaths from substances a different picture appears.
The number one killer in the United States which beat out AIDS, Heroin, Crack, Cocaine, Alcohol, Car Accidents, Fire and Murder – Combined: Tobacco.
With an average of 430,000 deaths per year, considering it’s the number one killer, it’s interesting to know tobacco receives US Government subsidies and is grown with radioactive fertiliser.
Number two on the list, if we don’t include poor diet and lack of physical activity, with well over 85,000 deaths a year: Alcohol.
As we look down the list of killers there are others which may surprise you.
Caffeine comes in with around 10,000 deaths a year.
Over the counter drugs such as Aspirin cause over 7,000 deaths annually.
How many deaths due to cannabis per year?
Answer: None.
“There are no deaths from cannabis use – Anywhere,” says Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School. “You can’t find one.”
In over the ten thousand years of known cannabis use there has never been a single death attributed to cannabis.
Yet there are over 400,000 deaths in the US alone every year that are directly attributed to tobacco.
“A person would need to smoke 15,000 joints within 20 minutes in order to get a toxic amount of THC,” says Dr. Paul Hornby, PhD, Biochemist & Human Pathologist.
“Even in the animal studies where people have loaded the animals with doses that would be hundreds of times stronger than what a human could possibly be exposed to – the animals don’t die,” says British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall.
You can die from ingesting to much Aspirin. You can die from ingesting to much coffee.
“The drug warriors who say they have to protect society and save these people are being just a little bit disingenuous,” says Jack A. Cole Director of L.E.A.P. and former undercover narcotics officer of 14 years.
Not one university or medical facility has ever recorded a single death directly attributed to cannabis.
Then we get into the issue of addiction.
There are more young people in drug rehab and addiction clinics for cannabis than any other substance.
Does this mean cannabis is the most addictive substance today?
No.
There are more teenagers in treatment for cannabis than all the other drugs combined.
What the studies never tells you is why that’s true.
“A kid is caught possessing or smoking cannabis,” says Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School. “He’s taken to court. He’s given a choice: Either some horrible penalty or you go to a treatment centre. Obviously he chooses to go to treatment. And because he goes to treatment he is considered an addict.”
The reality is only three percent of the people in treatment for cannabis are there voluntarily. The other 97% were told to by their guardian or told to by a judge who says you can choose between jail or treatment. A lot of people choose treatment.
“It provides no basis for speaking about addiction,” says Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School. “Anybody who is at all sophisticated about marijuana/cannabis would rate them the way two researchers were asked to rate drugs in order of addiction.
“Nicotine was one, alcohol was two, then heroin, then cocaine, then coffee, and a few others and then marijuana/cannabis was at the very bottom of the list. Even below coffee!”
Cannabis is non addictive and can be easily discontinued by those that use it. Why is it then that it is considered so dangerous?
“Cannabis is the scapegoat,” says Dr. Tod Mikuriya, MD, former national administrator of the US Government’s Marijuana Research Programmes. “We’re covering up underlying problems in people. Especially young people: ‘Here I am. Don’t ignore me’.”
Neil Boyd, Professor of Criminology, Simon Fraser University and author of “High Society” says: “If you use marijuana on a daily basis for a year or so and you stop using it you are going to notice some differences. But nothing like the kind of withdrawal people will experience when deprived of either tobacco or heroin.”
Then there is the gateway theory.
“In the old days it was called the stepping stone hypothesis,” said says Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School. “If you stepped on this stone, marijuana, you were bound and determined to go on to the next stone, which would be one of the so called hard drugs.”
Every time it’s been looked at they’ve found there is nothing in marijuana that makes you want to go try something else said John Conroy, QC Criminal Defence Lawyer in an interview about cannabis.
“There is no inherent psychopharmacological property of marijuana which pushes one toward another drug,” says Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School.
Norm Stamper, PhD and former Seattle Chief of Police 1994 – 2000 said: “I drink alcohol, that’s my drug of choice. It could be said I started on Milk. I mean this is crazy. If I use marijuana why does that automatically make me a candidate to black tar heroin? It’s a nonsensical argument.”
Fact: Only one out of every 104 cannabis users use cocaine and less than one use heroin.
“The black market throws the dealers of cannabis together with dealers of hard drugs,” said John Conroy, QC Criminal Defence Lawyer. “If you have a black market and you have a dealer that’s dealing in marijuana and LSD and everything else and then the dealer might say to you ‘hey you wanna try something a little stronger?’ well in that sense, because of the black market, because of prohibition, people may be more susceptible to seeing these other drugs and be willing to try these other drugs.”
So what you see is a gateway effect caused by prohibition and the blending of the hard drug and cannabis markets.
Then there is the so called laziness theory. The one that says you will be useless to society if you use cannabis.
If that’s true there are about 50 million people in the United States and over half of the Canadian population have tried it. And yet both societies seem to flourish.
And some of the people who have smoked or still continue to smoke cannabis are:
Steve Jobs, Ted Turner, musicians such as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Snoop Dog, Willie Nelson and former Vice President Al Gore.
The people that have personality problems and who are going to be lazy and lose their jobs: they were going to lose their jobs anyway. They are not losing their job because of cannabis.
What about the potency of cannabis? People fear the potency of cannabis has increased but it’s a misplaced fear. There’s always been a range of THC in the plants. There has always been swag dirt cannabis and high grade cannabis. These days the high grade is just more accessible.
People aren’t boosting THC to unheard of levels, it just means there are nuances in the cannabis discussion people need to be aware of.
It’s a real stroke to our egos to think that during the 50 or so years of prohibition that we’ve improved upon varieties that have been cultivated for recreational use in places like India for literally thousands of years.
People and nay-sayers of cannabis like to say ‘Well you can abuse cannabis’.
You can also abuse cheese burgers and fried chicken too but you don’t go around closing Ice Queen and Dorothy’s or KFC (Burger King and McDonalds for our international friends reading this.) because you can abuse something. You can take a fork a jam it in your eyeball. Does that mean you should outlaw forks? You can jump off a bridge. Should we outlaw bridges now? Should we just Child proof the world?
Now to the issue of crime and violence associated with cannabis use.
Norm Stamper, PhD and former Seattle Chief of Police 1994 – 2000 said: “From beat cop to police chief I saw ample evidence of the harm caused by alcohol. And the absence of evidence caused by marijuana use. And I mean the complete absence. I can not recall a single case in which marijuana contributed to domestic violence. Or crimes of theft and the like.”
“There are far more crimes committed under the influence of unadulterated emotions. Anger. Rage. Jealousy.”
Correction with regard to my Boulder Colorado figure at the top of the last post.
The correct numbers are:
Colorado Springs collected more than $700,000 in taxes from the medical marijuana industry in 2011.
Denver collected more than $3.4 million last year from sales tax and application and license fees, according to preliminary figures. The State of Colorado collected $5 million in sales tax from medical marijuana businesses last year, more than twice what it collected the year before.
Oregon closed a budget gap last year in part by raising the annual fees it charges people with doctors’ notes to join the state’s medical marijuana program. In October, the state doubled the fee to $200 a year — with reduced fees available to people on food stamps — to raise an estimated $6.7 million a year to pay for other health programs.
Bermuda can regulate and profit and use that money to help our country.
It will also stop tourists from being penalized for possessing a non harmful naturally grown plant with numerous medicinal benefits – cannabis.
Criminalizing cannabis draws the natural comparison between cannabis and the prohibition of alcohol.
Under prohibition of alcohol everything got worse.
Alcohol prohibition birthed and gave rise to massive organised criminal groups. It led to a general disregard for the law and a general disregard for police activity because it was a law that most people didn’t obey.
Alcohol poisoning went up by 600 percent during prohibition. There were more speakeasies in places like New York City during prohibition than there are taverns and liquor stores today.
One can point to alcohol as continuing to be a social problem but we don’t have people shooting each other over alcohol now that it is regulated.
When alcohol was prohibited people could see that the prohibition of alcohol caused the emergence of gangsters and the underworld that took control of these substances.
During prohibition alcohol was no longer in the people’s control it was in the gangster’s control.
Sound like the Bermuda gang situation? Perhaps by now if you’ve been learning you can begin to understand that cannabis is a non harmful natural plant substance.
Regulating it would enable the Bermuda Government to make some sorely needed revenue and it would stop the gangs’ main source of income and force them into retirement.
Let the Island make the money, not the gangsters.
The numbers speak for themselves:
Colorado Springs collected more than $700,000 in taxes from the medical marijuana industry in 2011.
Denver collected more than $3.4 million last year from sales tax and application and license fees, according to preliminary figures. The State of Colorado collected $5 million in sales tax from medical marijuana businesses last year, more than twice what it collected the year before.
Oregon closed a budget gap last year in part by raising the annual fees it charges people with doctors’ notes to join the state’s medical marijuana program. In October, the state doubled the fee to $200 a year — with reduced fees available to people on food stamps — to raise an estimated $6.7 million a year to pay for other health programs.
Having cannabis illegal strengthens organised crime because you have to be a criminal to sell it. It’s that simple.
Cannabis is just a plant and yet prohibition makes it worth more than gold ounce for ounce. You don’t find legal commodities at 600 dollars an ounce. Prohibition creates an artificially inflated value for cannabis that is so huge that people decide it is worth murdering people in order to control the market.
The esteemed Fraser Institute in Canada called Cannabis prohibition a gift of revenue to organised crime.
Cannabis prohibition in a sense is like the Wild West. You have an unregulated market in which anything can happen. When you try to prohibit something that is in demand, that people want, then it’s pure folly.
Without control it’s hard to regulate areas of concern like keeping it out of the hands of minors.
Shouldn’t the Bermuda Government decide which age is appropriate to start using cannabis rather than some drug dealer pushing his illegal products?
Teenagers across the United States admitted it’s easier for them to get illegal substances from dealers than it is to get alcohol and cigarettes.
It’s harder for minors to buy alcohol and cigarettes because they have to go through a regulated establishment that’s going to check I.D. and have those safeguards in place. They aren’t going to sell it to you just because you have 40 bucks in your pocket.
In comparison the dealer doesn’t want to know, nor do they care how old their customers are. They don’t check I.D. all they say is “show me the money.” If they get that money they don’t care how old the person is they are selling their illegal products to. They just want money.
If you can’t control the sale of a product how on earth can you keep it out of the hands of kids?
The use of criminal law for the basis of public health is a wholly bad idea no matter how you look at it. It doesn’t work. You cannot legislate morality.
One person can say it’s immoral to legalise it just as much as someone can say it’s immoral not to legalise it. It doesn’t get us anywhere.
Bermuda needs to have a rational policy debate by talking about the consequences.
We need to debate why it is that alcohol kills so many people every year and cannabis kills none. Or why it is tobacco takes seven years off your life, and kills over 430 thousand people a year in the US alone, while there is no proof to establish that cannabis has any harmful effects at all.
The Bermuda Government should stop punishing people for something that hurts no one. They should legalise cannabis and tax it as high as they can for permits and licences and put every dime back into the health care and education system.
The distinction between decriminalisation and legalisation is simple: Legalisation of cannabis makes it a product that is legally available to adults and is government regulated.
Decriminalisation of cannabis still makes it an offense. You won’t go to jail for it under a decriminalised model but society is still saying no no no.
It’s not addressing the problems of organised crime and it doesn’t create a situation where you have retail sales.
Decriminalisation is a flawed concept. To say that something is legal to own, to use it, to possess it, but you aren’t allowed to produce or sell it is an illogical position because people will still get their cannabis from somewhere.
Former mayor of Vancouver (2002-2005) and former member of the RCMP Drug Squad and Canadian Senator Larry Campbell said: “Decriminalisation is the worst of both worlds and sends out and incredibly bad message. Cannabis should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco.”
The total impact to the US budget from legalising cannabis and regulating and taxing it like alcohol and tobacco is somewhere in the 10 to 14 Billion dollar range. That money can then be used to pay for health care costs, offer people lower tax rates, it can be used for roads, highways, hospitals, national defence. It’s 14 Billion dollars and it can be used in a number of positive ways.
Granted Bermuda won’t make 14 Billion off legalisation, taxation and regulation but it will make millions and in today’s economy those millions are sorely needed.
“The production, the harvesting, the packaging, the sales of cannabis could be handled essentially the way we handle alcohol. If a store sells to a minor or someone under the influence then their license is in jeopardy. And that is a license that should be hard to obtain and easy to lose.” said Norm Stamper, PhD and former Seattle Chief of Police 1994 – 2000.
if ur interested in what Law enforcement thinks about prohibition check outis factual video….http://www.leap.cc/
At some point one has to ask ones self how does an industry of this size function while remaining illegal? Where does the money flow? Who is profiting off of it? Are there really untold millions floating around Bermuda unaccounted for?
Prohibition hasn’t reduced the demand for cannabis. And it certainly hasn’t reduced the supply. Prohibition of cannabis creates a steady source of revenue for organised crime and the gangsters who plague Bermuda. This in turn attracts young people to join the gangs because they believe the money is so easy. Because of prohibition cannabis is an underground market and this is turn creates crime and violence.
And yet the only ones paying the costs for all the courts, housing cannabis offenders in jail, fighting a losing war on cannabis prohibition, are the tax payers. Everyday Bermudians like you and me.
Prohibition of cannabis is a losing war on a natural non harmful plant which poses way less of a threat than the substances we already regulate such as tobacco and alcohol and caffeine. Why aren’t legalisation, taxation and regulation of cannabis up for debate in Bermuda?
Bermuda desperately needs money. We could make millions in the legalisation, taxation and regulation of cannabis. We could save millions by not tying up the court system and our jails for people using a natural non harmful plant. Why are we continuing to punish our citizens for something that hurts no one and for which over one third of Bermuda’s population uses?
The real war on cannabis didn’t start until 1972 when President Nixon said: “Every one of the bastards that are out for legalising marijuana is Jewish.” – Richard Nixon 1971 – White House Tapes.
Once Nixon got into the war on drugs he had an agenda. A lot of information on cannabis that was kept and housed in the Library of Congress and at major universities was recalled and destroyed.
Nixon commissioned a report on cannabis called The Shafer Report in 1972. It was conducted and researched by a republican Governor whose findings stated cannabis was essentially harmless. The study was a non biased study conducted which proved cannabis was harmless. Nixon completely ignored the report he commissioned and undertook the war on drugs anyway.
“In the early 1970’s it was the beginning of the war on drugs,” said Norm Stamper, PhD and former Seattle Chief of Police 1994 – 2000. “76 New Jersey Troopers became detectives and I was one of them. They designated one third of us undercover and I happened to fall into that one third. That’s where I spent the next 14 years of my life.
“What we targeted on was the pot smokers. There was a very good reason we targeted the pot smokers: Most of them were protesting against the Vietnam War. If you could arrest that whole group of people because they were smoking pot you didn’t have to have a Vietnam War protest. Which Mr. Nixon thought was a pretty good idea.”
So when President Nixon created the drug war in 1972 it was really a war on cannabis. And then it really kicked into high gear in the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan became President.
Trying to rally support for his war on drugs his argument was, and he said publicly, that young people get together, they read books, they smoke marijuana and they talk and discuss things.
He was trying to make it seem like those three elements are a recipe for disaster. He was saying people who sit quietly and read books and discuss things are bad people.
In a sense he was saying everyone should look the same and act the same and not question anything and just put on your socks and loafers every day and go to work, come home and repeat.
The last thing persons in power want is people thinking and questioning. They don’t want people sitting around and discussing the reasons why we are in Vietnam, or the Gulf war or why there are no civil rights, or women’s rights, or gay rights, or why we are in Iraq soon to be in Iran.
The focus of the US Government’s war on drugs is cannabis. The focus of their rhetoric is cannabis. It’s used as a poster child for all drugs. When you see an ad for drugs you always see the cannabis leaf.
There are people at all levels of government who know that cannabis prohibition is not a winnable war yet they continue to pursue it.
The way to justify their cannabis policy is to create fear and then spend a lot of money combating that fear.
In the US an estimated $7.7 billion dollars is spent annually by the US Government to enforce cannabis prohibition. If you took the using population of all the other illegal drugs combined and you eliminated cannabis from that equation there wouldn’t be a big enough drug problem in Bermuda or the US or Canada or the UK to justify the massive expenditures which go towards fighting the losing war.
$400 million dollars is spent annually in Canada arresting and prosecuting for cannabis crimes. The total budget to combat all drugs in Canada is $500 million dollars. $400 million to combat a non harmful plant and $100 million to try to combat real drugs with real addictions and deaths is not good financial governance. Especially when it’s been proven time and again cannabis is not harmful and not addictive and doesn’t kill anyone. 4/5 of the Canadian drug budget is used towards cannabis leaving 1/5 for crack, heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, the date rape drug, ecstasy and other extremely deadly and harmful drugs.
“The drug enforcement industry is big business,” said Norm Stamper, PhD and former Seattle Chief of Police 1994 – 2000. “It’s self perpetuating; it relies on tax payer dollars. There are many many police officers, however, who believe marijuana ought to be legalised, regulated and controlled. They see the hypocrisy of our existing laws relating to alcohol and marijuana. In their day to day life in shift after shift they see what’s going on and they get it. But they don’t want to lose their jobs. They don’t want to lose that promotion to sergeant or the assignment to detectives. They want to be a chief someday and they don’t want to piss off the people in power.”
Judges, lawyers, prosecutors, defence lawyers, the prison guard – all the people in the criminal justice industry are their interest being protected by prohibition? Yes. The more things that are prohibited the more money the defence bar makes as court cases are brought in.
In 2005 786,546 people were arrested in the US for simple cannabis possession. If you look the stats in terms of drug offences the largest group are people for simple possession of cannabis. Currently there are nearly 45,000 prisoners in the State and Federal prisons for cannabis violations in the United States. This does not include the number of people in local and county jails for cannabis related offences.
88% of cannabis arrests are for simple possession – FBI Uniform Crime Report.
The number of people arrested every year for simple cannabis possession rivals the number of arrests for murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault combined.
Meaning: more people are arrested for possessing a non harmful plant every year than real criminals.
Between 1977 and 1999 local and state spending on corrections across the country grew by 946%. Almost two and a half times the rate in which spending on education increased. In the late 1980’s there were about five privately run prisons in the United States. By 2005 that number had reached over 260. As soon as you’ve accumulated enough capital from building prisons you can start ensuring job security by ensuring there will always be more prisoners around to require prisons. Businesses profiting over people going to jail is a scary notion because businesses are there to make one thing: money.
The more prisoners there are the more money the private prison business makes.
Correctional Guard Unions have made a lot of money and have become powerful lobbying groups pushing for longer sentences for cannabis.
Other businesses that make money off cannabis prohibition are the drug testing companies. It’s a huge money making industry right now.
“It started off with people saying we need to test people in dangerous occupations,” said Norm Stamper, PhD and former Seattle Chief of Police 1994 – 2000. “Things like police officers and airline pilots should be tested. Then somebody said our athletes should be tested too. Then someone said it’s not just the professional athletes we need to test the athletes in colleges and high schools. Then they thought a little harder and they said suppose we just test everybody that goes out for an extracurricular activity. So now if you want to join the chess club at school or French club you have to pee in a bottle.
“Now they are pushing to make laws to test all children at school. All the studies show this doesn’t have anything to do with whether kids use drugs or not. It looks to me like this has a lot more to do with the money that’s being made for drug testing. Can you imagine how much money will be involved if we can randomly test every child in school?”
A lot of these testing labs that urine test have refused to continue to do it because the only thing these urine tests are finding is cannabis. Hard drugs dissipate from the system fast enough to not be found.
“If they smoke a marijuana cigarette, 28 days later if they pee in a bottle they are going to show that they have used marijuana,” said Norm Stamper, PhD and former Seattle Chief of Police 1994 – 2000. “But if they use a hard drug like heroin or cocaine or meth then after a long weekend no one can tell that they’ve used that drug.
“So what does that say to our young people? It says if you don’t want to get caught don’t use the soft drugs, use the hard drugs.”
It’s not just urine anymore. It’s hair and saliva and blood testing. There is a whole industry in drug testing and it makes a huge fortune every year. They aren’t doing the tests for free.
Cannabis does not kill and is not harmful and is illegal. Yet the US can export their killer tobacco and cigarette products which kill over 430,000 people in the US every year and countless Bermudians in Bermuda every year and it’s easily available all over the Island.
Bermuda is literally importing death from the United States while harmless cannabis remains illegal. The sheer hypocrisy of it is astounding.
If profit equals the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent on producing something what is the most profitable industry in the United States?
The most powerful industry in the United States is pharmaceuticals. The amount of dollars involved in that industry is just staggering. In 2005 US prescription drug sales rose 5.4% to $251 billion dollars. And global pharmaceutical sales rose 7% to $602 billion dollars.
Why would pharmaceuticals be threatened by a plant?
The answer is one word: Natural.
A significant amount of research to date has confirmed that cannabis in its natural state is still the most effective form for many ailments.
Can you imagine a world where you or I wouldn’t have to pay for certain medicines? The pharmaceutical companies sure don’t.
“After dealing with about Ten Thousand patients over the last 15 years I would say that over 200 different medical conditions respond favourably to cannabis.” said Dr. Tod Mikuriya, MD, former national administrator of the US Government’s Marijuana Research Programmes.
Glaucoma, Epilepsy, Muscular Dystrophy, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, wasting syndrome, nausea, chronic pain, menstrual cramps, depression, anxiety, hepatitis c, cancer, chemo patients, AIDS patients are all some of the diseases and symptoms which cannabis helps alleviate more than pharmaceuticals.
“There is no product out there today which provides as many medical benefits as cannabis.” said Dr. Tod Mikuriya, MD, former national administrator of the US Government’s Marijuana Research Programmes.
Cannabis is a underutilised major resource.
The way to riches in the pharmaceutical industry is to have a drug which can be patented. By synthesizing and owning compounds that is where the profit motive comes into the pharmaceutical industry.
The patent in the United States is 20 years and you can charge whatever you want during that period and that’s just what pharmaceutical companies do for their drugs.
There’s no money to be made for the pharmaceutical companies off natural plants. If you can use a natural medicine such as cannabis, which you can grow in your own home, and which costs pennies to use you are going to do that over paying high priced pharmaceutical drugs.
The prime motivation for any drug company is to make money and as much money as possible. They don’t want people using cannabis because they are losing customers.
You grow more you get more medicine and pharmaceutical companies don’t want you growing your own medicine.
Pharmaceutical companies are trying to synthesize cannabis with their drugs such as Marinol but it doesn’t work as good as the natural plant. If cannabis is supposedly so bad why are pharmaceutical companies trying to synthesize it? Because cannabis is not harmful and the pharmaceutical companies want to make money from it somehow.
Every year prescription medicines kill over 100 thousand people. The pharmaceutical companies have done a great job at convincing the public that they need their potions.
Millions of people are addicted to anti depressant drugs bought from pharmaceutical companies.
It seems to be acceptable to give people something as long as you are wearing a white smock. As long as you have a prescription it doesn’t matter how deadly the drug is and what the side effects are.
Pharmaceuticals are often dangerous and toxic and it kills a lot of people every year. Heroin was originally a drug created and sold by Bayer – the same people you get your Aspirin and Baygon from.
Francis Young, a DEA judge, took medical testimony for over two weeks on cannabis. At the end of it he made this statement: “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”
The training and education of medical doctors today is infested with the pharmaceutical companies from the minute their medical training starts.
“They are brought right from the beginning into the fold of the pharmaceutical industry.” said Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School. “They are reading journals and advertisements. Or they are reading papers on drugs that were financed by the pharmaceutical companies.
“Or as Doctors they are being seduced by the companies with fancy dinners or a weekend trip to play 18 holes of golf. And in some cases they get outright money from the drug company. So doctors have a bias towards the products of the pharmaceutical industry.
“They do not readily accept the idea that a simple plant or herb may be useful.”
Pharmaceutical companies have 1, 274 lobbyists in Washington. That’s more than two for every member of congress.
We should be making use of the cannabis plant, not punishing Bermudians for something that is harmless. Restriction and prohibition of cannabis is illogical considering it hurts no one and helps so many.
After years of saying cannabis is so bad without any evidence to back those claims up the Bermuda Government need to reverse their stance and change the archaic cannabis laws in Bermuda.
But sometimes egos prevent the world from moving forward. What politician is brave enough to go before their constituents and say they were wrong about cannabis and it should be legalised when yesterday they said it was evil and dangerous.
The constituents will want to know why they changed their mind. They’ll want to know: Were you lying to us or were you stupid?
Politicians are elected on get tough on crime platforms and platforms which say they are going to get all the cannabis cultivators and smokers. They are preying on the fears of the public.
With votes on the line what politician is ready and willing to take that cannabis legalisation stance for the betterment of Bermuda?
The easy way out is one word: Medicinal.
Put the word medicinal in front of the word marijuana or cannabis and you are now talking about something completely different if you are a politician.
Medical marijuana has seen tremendous success in the United States and in Canada and has created a positive revenue stream which can be channelled back into the community.
Some people go home at the end of the day and have a couple of drinks to unwind. Is doing that in the pursuit of pain or pleasure?
The same parallel can be drawn with cannabis. If someone wants to unwind with cannabis at the end of the day, and cannabis is less harmful than alcohol, why isn’t cannabis legal?
The government is more willing to forgive cannabis use if it’s from relief from pain or anxiety, but if it’s used for pursuit of pleasure then it becomes a problem.
It’s a cultural and societal perception which is not logical.
At this point in time with regards to cannabis the people are ahead of their leaders in knowledge about cannabis.
As far as humanity goes cannabis could well be the most useful plant ever. It makes medicines, food, clothes, oil, paper, fabric, fibre, textiles – the list goes on and on. It is non toxic, non addictive, non harmful and yet it is illegal.
Bermuda needs to have a rational policy debate regarding cannabis. Legalising cannabis, regulating and controlling it will make the Bermuda Government at least five to ten million a year just off people obtaining a users license if priced at $500 a license.
Let Bermuda make the money, not the gangsters.
The only thing prohibition of cannabis has done for Bermuda is to create a gangster and organised crime syndicate who get rich every year off a losing drug war. Cannabis prohibition has literally made our Bermuda streets bloody and violent with thugs carrying guns. Legalising cannabis takes away their revenue stream and if they don’t have money coming in the gangsters have no money for guns or drugs.
Prohibition does not work and there is no valid reason cannabis should be illegal in Bermuda. Bermuda imports pharmaceuticals and tobacco from the United States which addicts and kills Bermudians and yet cannabis which hurts and kills no one is not legal.
Stop persecuting and prosecuting Bermudians and tourists over something natural, which hurts no one and helps many people with numerous medical conditions.
When it comes to cannabis Bermuda needs to educate and regulate not subjugate and dominate.
Just so we are all on the same page: Much of the information I’ve transcribed and written about above can be found by watching The Union film at youtube: http://youtu.be/6jO_ncXj7RE
Boy!,….didnt you just waste a lot of time producing the facts for these illiterate people….sorry it didnt get through to their brains coz its all clouded with Alcohol….hahahah
How did they know the plants were there if the occupants of the house didn’t know the plants were there..??
How does the song go… “Watch who you smoke with and who you toke with..”
So a taxi driver with $13,000 worth of crack and intent to sell gets 2 1/2 years… but this guy can face up to 10 years?
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.
Cunningham convinced the judge that he cunningly concealed the cannabis in his closet .
True i know where the house is and its only someone that knew you and told, I am sure now you will watch who your friends are. TRUST NO ONE YOUNG MAN NO ONE.
Or maybe customs officers just got his address from ZipX because he imported special grow lights? Someone could have “snitched”, but not necessarily…
then we should be seeing busts every month if this was the case?? This happened like a year ago(April) didn’t it?
He only got off because of who his parents are, and money talks and bulls%$t walks. If he was just the average poor young black man, his ass would have been in Westgate. He is too damn grown to be acting like a teenager
Isn’t this what prohibition was design for to keep the poor in chains. You cant be mad when a system is working as its supposed to. Just imagine how many young Bermudians would have gone to further educate themselves if not for the stoplist. Then there might not be any room for expats in the workforce. We can’t have that can we. Karl Marx said that, “Religion is the opiate of the people” but I believe prohibition is the opiate of the people & religion is just one tool used to apply the false moral standards of prohibition.
“Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself” – President Jimmy Carter
so only teenagers smoke? Or is it that only teenagers and the fool-hearted are overseeing the infinite irony that they now even have a weekly series on the History Channel about growing Pot?
As for his parents and money, poorman, Westgate etc…then why did he hav to go to court in the first place for 4 plants in his house if thy are so CONNECTED AND RICH?
Did his parents use a QC? Or did he use his childhood mate who coincidentally became a topnotch defense lawyer?
He has built his own good character and reputation which helped in his suspended sentence from the social inquiry….
Hopefully he has learned his lesson in more ways than one…Please don’t try and post a “rich and lucky” sign on him if you don’t even know him
If you dont smoke or drink…then more power to you…If you feel like it is an insult for a man wanting to grow a little stalk of weed in his backyard to smoke in the privacy of his own home and not harm anyone but maybe himself…then maybe Webster’s Dictionary should redefine the definition of “FREEDOM”
No! No! realitychek I think you’re a bit confused. Freedom is for democratic nations where the people have a say in wether a law is just or not. Remember we have an act that I was so politely pointed out by another poster that says police can bust in ANY citizens door & go through ANY of their privacy using this act just like they do in North Korea. No search warrant needed just a reference to the almighty act & any rights of freedom of movement & personal space go out the window. We used to have freedom but that was before 1971 now our rights have been revoked.
Hence my request for the word to be changed….
Not confused Tommy…but all too understanding
I’m just playing realitychek. I know you’re all too understanding by reading your posts. I want to put in a word change request also but don’t want to be stereotyped. Any idea how that can be done? It would be great if all of us that know actual prohibition facts could join together to petition. I don’t want to join the anti prohibition group that Bermuda has now because they go on too much about rastafarianism which makes for a weak argument. We can’t change governments mind by saying jahjah says. I would like to go as far as pushing for the administering of hard drugs in MAWI so the addicts don’t have to go through the criminal route.
Numerous petitions have been circulated over the years with regard to decriminalizing or legalizing cannabis. One IIRC with about 3,000 signatures. But to no avail…
I FEEL the local authorities are afraid of the backlash from the big bad US of A on this one….
Obviously he must be your kin since you feel the need to defend him. He committed a crime, regardless if you agree that growing weed is a crime or not, even for personal use. In Bermuda it is illegal end of story!
“in Bermuda it is Illegal end of story”
It used to be illegal for Black people to enter certain establishments in Bermuda not too long ago….
But we all know where you probably stand on that subject too since you feel that defending a perceivably false accusation means u have to be “kin-folk”.
you sure you didnt want to say “your kind?” ie. black Bermudian Male?
Thats like me saying your parents must have been slavemasters for “not” defending him. How stupid does that sound???
tell me when the story is gonna end again……cause as far as I have seen so far, it never will…..
That’s right never leave home without your MasterCard!!
PRICELESS!!!
Go out there and work hard, make connections with the right people and you always will be given courtesy above the average man.
Stop Hating on the brother this is Bermuda. It’s not who you are it’s who you know the UBP/OBA did it for years for certain segment of the population. Now they want to include the blacks in their master plan after 40 plus years.
FACT!!!
So are you stating that Bermuda law practices economic segregation? After all these years I thought segregation was abolished in Bermuda.