Uni student jailed for possessing marijuana

 By JUNIOR UKAHA

A UNIVERSITY student was yesterday jailed for being in possession of marijuana. 

Korae Gena, a second-year agriculture science student at the PNG University of Technology (Unitech), in Lae, Morobe, was sentenced to nine months in jail by Lae District Court Magistrate Nasaling Bingtau.  

The court heard that at 10.30am last Saturday Gena, from Koge, Sinasina, Chimbu, was with a friend and former Unitech student Kennedy Darius when they were caught with a pack of marijuana in their possession.

They were caught at the Unitech campus by the university’s security guards.

The guards took them to the police station where they were charged and detained.

Gena denied the charge, saying the marijuana belonged to Darius.

“I am innocent. The marijuana belongs to my friend,” he said.

“It was found in his possession.”

But Bingtau told Gena he was knowingly with a person who was in possession of an illicit drug. 

Bingtau also sentenced Darius to nine months in jail for the same offence after he admitted the marijuana was his.

Darius was at the university premises to get an application to re-enroll.

“You have failed your schooling because you are a drug body,” Bingtau told Darius.

“After you come out from prison you must get educated properly, get a degree, and change the country,” he told Darius.