Magistrate: Use fertile land back home to grow crops, not marijuana

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday 25th March 2013

 TAMBUL is a fertile land for growing food. You must go back to your village and grow good food and not ma­rijuana.

These were the words from Lae district court magistrate Sasa Ikung when he jailed a young man, from Tambul in Western Highlands, for 11 months for possessing marijuana.

Junior Mackinza appeared in court last Friday charged with possessing marijuana.

The court heard that on March 20, at about 2.30pm at the East Taraka Shopping Centre, Mackinza was caught by police with 39 rolls of dried marijuana.

The court heard that he was selling the rolls for 50t each.

Snr Const Vincent Suakai of the police prosecution said the accused attempted to hide the marijuana rolls when he saw the police but the police spotted the drug and apprehended him.

Ikung said that the government was concerned about the health of the people and had come up with laws to stop marijuana cultivation and consumption.

“Don’t play around with cannabis. It will make you go longlong (mentally retarded),” the magistrate said.

He told the accused that the punishment for being in possession of the marijuana was two years imprisonment but since he was a first-time offender he had given him a 11-month jail term.

He told the unemployed Western Highlander to go back to his Tambul village and grow good food and not marijuana when he came out from prison.