IF there is any move to legalise marijuana in this country, the recent antics by Sport Minister Anil Roberts is good reason not to support it, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday. Speaking at a news conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader at Charles Street, Port of Spain, Rowley said he was told this by someone yesterday. Last week TV6 News aired a video in which a man who looks and speaks like a Government minister was captured rolling a marijuana joint. [continues 260 words]
Former independent senator Dana Seetahal had advocated for a drug court to be established in this country. Seetahal served as an independent senator from 2002 to 2010. In 2007, she contributed to the debate on a private motion moved by former independent senator Ramesh Deosaran which focused on the then People's National Movement (PNM) Government handling of the crime situation. She had expressed concern about the drug trade and the increased addiction to cocaine and heroin. "So you know when I hear this acknowledgement of this and we have all this crime, look at what is happening in the world and so on; yes, yes, but what are we doing here? Why is there no drug court? When I say drug court, I am not talking about a court called, "Drug and firearms court" where you try people charged with drug offences," Seetahal had said. [continues 190 words]
I am 16 years of age and I disapprove of the suggestion that marijuana be decriminalised or legalised. Why would anyone even think about doing that? Did you people even think before making that statement? Knowing the people of this nation, you give them an inch and they take a yard. You think allowing them to have a certain quantity of marijuana would make them ease up on it? No. They would think to themselves, "The Government has made it LEGAL". They're not going to accept that only certain quantities are permitted. Did you people think about the repercussions of legalising it? I don't think so. [continues 154 words]
WHAT most people know about cannabis also known as marijuana is that they were born in a world where the American government leads the way in levelling prosecution of the plant? Most people have no personal experience with marijuana. Most people have no personal eye witness accounts of the effects of cannabis (medicinal or hallucinogenic) from which to draw from to testify of the effects of cannabis on the human body. Most people don't know that the human body produces cannabinoids, a class of diverse chemical compounds that activate cannabinoid receptors on cells that repress neurotransmitter release in the brain. These receptor proteins include the endocannabinoids (produced naturally in the body by humans and animals), the phytocannabinoids (found in cannabis and some other plants), and synthetic cannabinoids (produced chemically by humans). The most notable cannabinoid is the phytocannabinoid 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound of cannabis. These receptor proteins have host of positive effects on living tissue. Most people are acutely ignorant to the fact that cannabis is recorded as one of the oldest positive medicinal plants used on the planet. Most people don't know that ironically the United States is among the top six countries in the world leading the way in cannabis research. The other five top countries spearheading cannabis research are Canada, Israel, Czech Republic, United Kingdom and The Netherlands. [continues 282 words]
Those of you who follow the war on drugs would notice that Sir Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin group, and a member of the UN Global Commission on Drug policy has publicly come out in favour of ending the war on drugs by decriminalising the use of illegal substances. Now some of you would naturally be thinking what Sir Richard has been smoking himself to come out with such a radical stance. Well, if you read his latest article on the matter "End the war on drugs- Crime shouldn't pay", he clearly points that apart from being very expensive the global war has not been very effective. [continues 271 words]
Nazma muller talks to Onwubiko Agozino, a professor of sociology and a graduate of Edinburgh University in Scotland, Cambridge University in England and Calabar University in Nigeria. A lecturer in criminology at UWI, he had some very interesting propositions for the Government on how to solve crime. Q: Professor, how long have you been in Trinidad? A: I have been here since August 2006. So you know what's happening on the crime scene. What insights can you give a society that feels it's under siege? [continues 1511 words]
Probe Into Missing Marijuana, Cocaine Investigators probing the disappearance of 28 blocks of compressed marijuana and four kilogrammes of cocaine from the scene of a crime are now in a quandary, having received information that two police officers were in cahoots with drug dealers. Investigators initially believed that the disappearance of the drugs came after the drug dealers fled the scene after a shoot-out with police in Maraval. However, new information suggests that the drug dealers were working alongside a rogue senior officer in transporting the drugs to its destination. [continues 407 words]
Rowley On US Revelations: Trade and Industry Minister Dr Keith Rowley says a recent United States government report that says the majority of cocaine exported to this country arrives at the nation's sea ports is "nothing new". "I'm not in a position to speak on this matter as you may have wanted. That is a matter of national security. I am not too familiar with the United States report and its assessment of this ongoing problem," Rowley said. He added, "Every year we get a report like that. It's never different. There's nothing new there." [continues 249 words]
Over 200 people walked in support of Errol Fabiens "Freedom Walk for a drug free T&T" at midnight yesterday. The Sunday Express was on hand as Project Manager Neil Giuseppi thanked and welcomed the walkers, most of whom wore white t-shirts with the name of the march printed on their chest. Beginning at 12.01 a.m., the 24-hour walk was said to be the first time anyone has ever made that major step and commitment to walk from Icacos to the Audrey Jeffers Highway at MovieTowne on the Western Pennisula for a drug free country. [continues 310 words]
The storage rooms at police stations across the country are stuffed to the roof with marijuana because for the past six years, none have been destroyed, says Opposition Chief Whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj. At the end of each drug case, the narcotics would be ordered to be destroyed in Chaguaramas, an exercise done twice to four times yearly. The pile up, he said, was causing confusion with the tracking of exhibits, and resulting in cases against drug accused being dismissed. Police in the Southern and South Western Divisions told the Express that there were problems with the disposal of drug exhibits, and that accurate property room record-keeping was being compromised. [continues 121 words]
Bobo Shanti Rastafarians will celebrate their Christmas today. One of the elders of the religious sect, Priest Nyah, said the 500 members of his commune at Wharf Trace, Maracas, St Joseph, will mark the "birth of the Earth" with fasting and prayers from 6 a.m. to noon, followed by an evening of song and celebration. The commune, which is part of the Ethiopian Black African International Congress, has been in existence since 1984, and the compound includes a church, living and eating quarters, a school and a conference room. [continues 197 words]
Manning's Crime Pledge For 08: 'Measures In Place': Prime Minister Patrick Manning Prime Minister Patrick Manning is confident that the crime situation, though difficult, will improve in 2008. And Manning said his Government was moving to "completely eradicate" the drug problem, which was the major source of crime and violence in the country. Speaking after a tour of the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the Port of Spain Waterfront yesterday, Manning expressed confidence that Government had put the correct measures in place and that, given time, they would bring about the improvements that everyone wishes. [continues 313 words]
As a former head of the Firearms and Interdiction Unit and with his experience as a detective with the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit, Supt Chandrabhan Maharaj is better placed than most to be informed about the involvement of fellow officers in both the illegal gun and drug trades, the more so because the two are demonstrably connected. Accusations of police corruption in general and involvement in both gun and drug rackets in particular are not new but the superintendent's allegations clearly deserve the greatest weight since he is in a position to have extensive insider information that, properly handled, will blow the proverbial whistle on at least some of his crooked comrades. [continues 311 words]
Senior Officer Refuses Promotion An investigation has been launched into claims made by a Police Superintendent that police officers are involved in the drug and guns trade in the Southern Division. The allegation that rampant corruption exists in the division was made by Supt Chandrabhan Maharaj, in a letter written to Police Commissioner Trevor Paul. In the letter, Maharaj, who is in charge of the Princes Town Police Station, refused to accept a promotion to the position of Acting Senior Superintendent in charge of the entire Southern Division because of the alleged crooked activities of police officers. [continues 317 words]
A San Fernando man who spent six months longer in jail than necessary emerged from custody defiant yesterday, saying he wanted the use of marijuana legalised. "I looking for freedom to smoke marijuana in peace," 67-year-old Uric Merrick said, adding that he used the drug for meditation. Merrick, a professed Christian, said he did not understand why the use of the drug was illegal, when it could be used for the "right" purposes. High Court Judge Gregory Smith ordered his release from prison yesterday-almost one year after Merrick had been sentenced to six months in custody for possession of marijuana. [continues 192 words]
A SENIOR attorney yesterday called for the introduction of random drug testing for all police officers to be included as part of the new regulations governing the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. Israel Khan said members from the Police Commissioner to any constable should subject themselves to periodical tests, as he welcomed the new measures aimed at weeding out unsuitable people from joining the service. People with chronic gambling problems should also be debarred from joining the Police Service, he said. [continues 280 words]
We need a new strategy. It should be clear to everybody that the illegal drug trade is flourishing worldwide and is estimated by the United Nations to be worth US$400 billion a year. Enormous wealth is being generated by criminals who are willing to profit from the "risk premium" of dealing in these illicit drugs. Cocaine is produced in Colombia at a cost of an estimated US$500 per kilo, and retails on the streets of America at US$60,000 per kilo. Marijuana starts life even cheaper than Pangola grass, which is probably why it is called "weed"? In Afghanistan, the USA and its "coalition partners" have spent approximately US$2 billion trying to eradicate the growing of poppy from which heroin is made, and in spite of the presence of massive numbers of foreign troops, the heroin crop was last year estimated to be double the previous year's harvest - because there is a lot of money in it! [continues 555 words]
New Twist in Guyanese Man's Extradition PRIVATE criminal charges of kidnapping and unlawfully detaining a Guyanese national have been filed against a locally based American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent and two local officials by a representative of jailed Guyanese national Shaheed Roger Khan. This has been the latest twist in the ongoing legal battle since Khan was handed over to agents of the United States at Piarco International Airport on June 29. Khan was subsequently indicted in New York with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States during a five-year period between April 13, 2001 and March 2006. [continues 349 words]
THERE was high drama in court yesterday, when three Sea Lots fishermen charged with possession of 0.03 grammes of marijuana reappeared. The street value of the marijuana is about 15 cents. The accused men's defence attorney made allegations of beatings and threats by the police complainant upon his clients. The police prosecutor also refused to give a full description of the drugs to the court because she wanted further instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). All this happened amidst impassioned shouting as the defence and prosecution argued their case and at one point caused the presiding magistrate to silence them both as he said, "Please, I try to maintain a level of decibel noise in my court-room." [continues 221 words]
PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning yesterday called on the US government to step up to the plate and do more to arrest drug transshipment through the Caribbean region. Manning had the ears of US Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Roy Austin, who was one of the many guests at the launching of BG Trinidad and Tobago Luncheon series at the Hilton Trinidad. "Initially, the US was concerned about drugs, but of course that has inevitably since 9/11 given way to terrorism, preoccupied now... is terrorist activity around the world and how it affects US interests- we find that concern about drugs has gone to the back burner," Manning said. [continues 314 words]
With schools across the country set to reopen tomorrow, Education Minister Hazel Manning is assuring students, teachers, principals and parents that new policies and guidelines will be introduced to ensure that schools are safe, clean and healthy environments in which quality learning can take place. Unveiling the Ministry's newest policy titled Drug Abuse and Prevention at the Ministry's head office at Loinsworth Building, St Clair, last week, Manning said special interventions had been made to coincide with the start of the new academic year. [continues 206 words]
A primary school pupil related how his parents stopped using drugs when he took home a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) workbook and taught them how to resist drugs. He was among 54 pupils of the Fyzabad Presbyterian Primary School who graduated at the Morning Star Presbyterian Church, Lum Tack Hill, Fyzabad Friday . In an essay the DARE class was asked to write, the pupil said that his parents had been using drugs and he was worried that when he grew up he would also become a drug addict. He said that he showed his parents the workbook and discussed what he had learned in the programme. [continues 293 words]
Rohini Jones's path to prison was strewn with bad choices. She dropped out of school at 15. She ran away from home and worked in a bar. She began trafficking drugs from Trinidad to England. But there is one bad choice Jones, 31, could have but didn't make. It's one that may have had a result much worse than the four-year stretch she's soon to finish at the Women's Prison. She didn't swallow. Pellets, that is. They're condoms filled with cocaine and wrapped till grape size. They've been known to burst in the body of the carrier. The person dies in two hours. [continues 1136 words]
The Ministry of Health has recently been placing excellent ads in the print media which quote, among other things, the fact that the World Health Organisation reports that world wide, someone dies from tobacco use every 6.5 seconds. Also that smoking for 20 years will cause death for smokers as much as 25 years earlier than someone who never smoked. Yet tobacco use is legal. In developed countries tobacco use is dropping significantly through a combination of severe health warnings, taxation and the prohibition of advertising on television and other types of media. Tobacco companies are now concentrating on finding a growing number of new victims in Africa, Asia and eastern Europe. [continues 656 words]
The old woman edged cautiously towards the 12-year-old youth. "Where you going?" "By my friends up the streets." "Why the bandana on your head?" "Because all dem friends wearing one." "What is dat in your hand?" He smiled mockingly. But she had a consuming curiosity to press on. "Who gave you dat?" Frightened speechless, the little boy slipped through a neighbour's backyard and disappeared. In another reported incident, a 14-year-old was caught by PC Jaglal along the Mon Repos Street, San Fernando, with 2.1 grammes of marijuana in his possession. And another deviant youth was caught with a firearm and held in custody because "he feared that people out to kill him". It is believed that gang members wanted to dish out their polluted punishment on him "for not following orders." What orders? [continues 796 words]
Police officers were not acting responsibly when they fired a gunshot near a primary school, while pupils were playing in the yard, National Parent/Teacher Association president Zena Ramatali said yesterday. She said the officers should have exercised more caution because teachers and pupils could have been injured. The incident happened at the St Margaret's Government Primary School during the lunch time break on Thursday. Police officers were about to lock up a man on drug trafficking charges when he broke away near the station and ran through the schoolyard. [continues 196 words]
Tobago Community Up In Arms Plans to establish a drug rehabilitation centre in Goodwood, a community of about 1,000 people in East Tobago, have been met with opposition from some villagers. Arnold Des Vignes, president of the Goodwood Village Council, told the Sunday Express in a telephone interview, "As far as the people of Goodwood are concerned, they don't want it here." But Fitzherbert Phillips, president of Scarborough and Environs Action Group, the driving force behind the establishment of the centre, argues that this project will help deal with one of Tobago's most pervasive threats. [continues 824 words]
The cocaine found in New Grant that was eaten by "human rats" while in the custody of police, may not be the only drug haul that went missing in 2000, the Express has learnt. In another batch of cocaine found on Trinidad's South coast in August 2000, some also vanished, sources said. The missing cocaine issue will be brought up in a High Court case in San Fernando, due to be called before year's end. The case involves three men who were held with more than 20 kilograms of cocaine around the time blocks of cocaine began floating ashore after a mysterious incident involving a Guyanese fishing vessel out at sea. [continues 201 words]
East Indian businessmen are being kidnapped and forced to sell out their businesses very cheap before leaving to settle in another country, according to Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday. He said the drug lords are at the centre of such activities. "The drug lords are terrorising the businessmen so that they could acquire their property at a cheap rate," he said. Panday said the action by kidnappers is having a serious effect on the real estate market and families are leaving Trinidad in droves, which is a reversal of the trend when the United National Congress was in power. [continues 236 words]
"TELL them the rude boys from Beverly Hills say we go blow them up, yeah, fire burn them!" This came from one young man as he and other youths were in the middle of a card game on the steps of one of the wooden apartments, while they spoke with the Sunday Express about the police/army centre to be erected in their area. They were smoking marijuana and lamented that they would be unable to do this freely when the cops moved in. [continues 631 words]
Express Individual of the Year The power to stop crime is at your fingertip. Or so the new chairman of the Crime Stoppers programme, Darren Carmichael, would have us believe. "Empowerment to make a difference. That is the real value of the programme," Carmichael said yesterday. Crime Stoppers is an international non-profit, nongovernmental organisation which started in Albuquerque, New Mexico the United States in 1976 following the murder of a university student. A police officer, stumped in his investigations, came up with the idea of offering a cash reward for information and two men were later held. [continues 417 words]
FACED with the dangerous link between illicit drug consumption and the HIV/Aids pandemic, Caribbean Community governments are now challenged to also intensify efforts to deal with overcrowded prisons where significant percentages of inmates are young people and women convicted for using or running marijuana and cocaine. How to help reduce the tremendous harm from illicit drugs to family life and the social and economic consequences to society, with a shift from traditional punitive penal custody that is an increasing burden to State resources, requires a fresh look at alternative policies and programmes, according to penal reform and human rights specialists and professionals of regional and international institutions and agencies. [continues 869 words]
Two pupils of the Chaguanas Senior Comprehensive School appeared in court yesterday charged with drug possession. One of them was allegedly caught smoking marijuana in class. They were among three secondary school pupils who were arrested for taking drugs into their schools within the past week. In the most recent incident, a 14-year-old Form Three pupil was arrested after a Maintenance Training Security (MTS) officer allegedly found a joint of marijuana in his schoolbag. The officer searched the pupil before he entered the classroom yesterday morning and is said to have found the illegal drug in the form of a large cigarette. The cigarette weighed 1.1 grammes. [continues 144 words]
Judge's Plan to Reel in Drug 'Big Boys' DRUG OFFENDERS who cooperate with the police and provide information which can help nab the supplier will receive reduced sentences from the courts, a High Court judge said yesterday in passing sentences against two Carenage men. Although lawyers representing Cleveland McLean, 50, and Carlton Bernard, 52, had pleaded with Justice Mark Mohammed not to send their clients to jail, the judge noting the seriousness and prevalence of marijuana trafficking sentenced both men to serve two years each. [continues 241 words]
Fear Of Police Leads To Cocaine Overdose Ann Marie Arbuckle fell to the floor and screamed yesterday when she was told that her son died from a drug overdose. "I begged him not to go. I did not see him for three years and now that he out I was looking forward to spending time with my child," the mother of 11 wailed. Nkosi Arbuckle, of Lower Hillside, San Fernando, died five hours later at the San Fernando General Hospital after swallowing a quantity of cocaine. [continues 260 words]
The majority of drug abusers have been found to be in the transport, manufacturing and construction sectors. And more women are imprisoned for drug trafficking, while men are imprisoned for possession. This was revealed yesterday at the launch of the National Drug Observatory of Trinidad and Tobago (NDOTT) at the La Boucan, Hilton Trinidad. The Observatory is said to be the first of its kind in the region. The NDOTT will provide information on the anti-drug initiative, including national, regional and international trends and research in drug use, production and trafficking. The National Drug Information System, (NDIS) is the statistical component of the NDOTT. The NDIS is a centralised collection point for data from key stakeholders and creates an environment for stakeholders which include the Prison, Immigration, Police, Tobago House of Assembly, NADAAP, and the Counter Crime Task Force, to collaborate, network and exchange information. [continues 456 words]
MONEY owed for marijuana, police say, is the reason why shoemaker Crispin 'General' Thomas was shot and killed yesterday morning. Thomas, 51, was shot in the chest around 4 a.m. yesterday and his body found about two hours later on some steps at Freedom Street, Waterhole, Cocorite. Police are working on information that Thomas, who was a small time marijuana smoker, owed money for drugs he had bought and was killed because he did not pay up. Thomas, who lived not far from where he was killed, is believed to have gone for an early morning run when he was shot in the chest at close range with a shotgun. [continues 146 words]
New Attack Helicopter Unit To Fight Crime DESCRIBING crime as the "one dark cloud" hanging over this country, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday the Government was moving to purchase helicopters with attack capabilities and high-speed sea vessels, to wage a war against criminals, particularly those involved in the illicit drug trade. Manning also said that a state-of-the-art radar system from Israel was now being installed to help detect criminal activity in Trinidad and Tobago waters. He made these disclosures during yesterday's inaugural "Breakfast with the Prime Minister" at Crowne Plaza, Port of Spain. It was organised by the Public Relations Committee of the ruling People's National Movement (PNM) and had more than 500 guests. [continues 417 words]
A day after police dug up a cache of drugs, guns and ammunition, drug addicts in Cedros have reportedly moved onto the beach in search of more illegal treasure. Cedros Police said that reports on continuing police searches along the beaches in Icacos Village, Cedros were untrue. Assistant Police Commissioner Dennis Graham said as far as he was aware, the police search was over, and they had found what they were looking for. On Friday morning, police officers, some wearing hoods and heavily armed, stormed onto Los Gallos Beach, and dug up ten kilogrammes of cocaine, three handguns and more than 100 rounds of ammunition. A police officer at the Cedros Station said that the only activity on the beach yesterday were "sprangers who sleep there last night and start digging holes all about looking for drugs to smoke. They not breaking any laws". [end]
Police officers from the South Western division yesterday destroyed some 5,000 fully grown marijuana trees in the Mora Forest, Point Fortin, and arrested one man. Police say they were on a special exercise in the area when they stumbled on the marijuana field. Two men were seen in the field and police succeeded in arresting one, while the other escaped. The man is among 21 other people who will appear in court in Point Fortin tomorrow. The other 20 people were held for various outstanding charges, ranging from marijuana possession to housebreaking. Inspector Wells and Sgt Palloo, along with several police officers, began the special exercise around 5 a.m. yesterday and ended around noon. [end]
All narcotics, inclusive of cocaine, should be decriminalised and legalised. This from criminologist Prof Maureen Cain, when she spoke on the topic "Criminogenesis and the War Against Crime" at the UWI Centre for Gender and Development Studies. Her contribution was from a paper she presented at a workshop on Women, Crime and Globalisation, Feminist Perspectives for the New Millennium, in Spain last year. Prof Cain said that in the fight against the drug trade, western nations have opted for a demand reduction strategy, in spite of increasingly persuasive evidence that organised narcotics trading generates both more and new forms of violence. [continues 411 words]
Research by Prof Ramesh Deosaran which was commissioned by the Ministry of Education provides clear evidence that illicit drugs are a major problem in secondary schools, particularly in the so-called prestige schools. Four days after Education Minister Hazel Manning stated that violence in schools was linked to drugs, the ministry said yesterday that a 336-page report by Deosaran on "Violence and delinquency in the secondary school: Towards a culture of peace and civility "contains the results of a survey conducted on a sample of secondary schools throughout Trinidad, with the overall objective to study the apparent increase in violence and disruptive behaviour in secondary schools". [continues 173 words]
'I smoke herb on a meditative vibe. It's a spiritual thing to me, yuh know whah ah mean?' Reggae superstar Buju Banton Like Michael Jackson, Buju Banton's latest troubles have received worldwide attention. His arrest three weeks ago for marijuana possession was carried as breaking news by Rolling Stone, MTV, Billboard, Yahoo, ABC News, the BBC, the Scotsman, the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, even the Springfield News Sun in Ohio. But unlike the Gloved One, the shocked outrage that greeted the Gargamel's crime was that a Jamaican reggae star should be arrested for smoking weed in the Land of Ganja. "A how dem can lock up Buju fi a likkle ting like that?! More fire!" [continues 1046 words]
THE EDITOR: I would like to comment on a letter (December 16) from L Ramesar (headlined "Jail too harsh for schoolboy"). First of all, a crime was committed, it was also committed by an adult, regardless of schoolboy or not. It does not matter the amount or the quantity of marijuana, the matter is "possession of marijuana". The magistrate made it clear that the next student appearing before her would go "straight to jail", so why must this come as a shock to us. "You do the crime, you serve the time." [continues 99 words]
Hemp Meister's New Project He calls himself Keiser. A tall, slender, chocolate-skinned young man, who seemed to hold Zorro as his sartorial hero. An image in black-suit, shirt, head kerchief-he plays a short, lilting tune on a black recorder before regaling the small audience with a poetic "Discourse Between Knowledge and Wisdom." The conclusion? "The beginning of all wisdom is love." And love-or at least mention of it-was all abound last Thursday night at the Conscious Cafe, Trinidad's newest "haven for creative expression"-love for your fellow man, love for the environment, love for "Jah," and finally love for hemp, the most misunderstood of herbs, the one that is definitely not marijuana. [continues 633 words]
THE EDITOR: Kevon Stewart is my great nephew. He is registered as a student of the Arima Senior Comprehensive School. He is a Form Five student and is 18 years old. On Tuesday, December 9, 2003, Kevon was arrested on the school compound by a security guard with a 10-piece marijuana "tucked in his jersey under his school shirt wrapped in foil paper", as evidence provided by the prosecution. Kevon is about five feet and weighs about 100 pounds or less. So emaciated is he, often, when looking at his features, reminds one of Jack Palance, the American film star. He is a single parent child, his father died about nine years ago. He was a cripple at death and yet in that disabled state provided for Kevon and his siblings as much as his good-heartedness allowed. [continues 674 words]
The Editor: I was outraged and sickened to read that an 18-year-old student was sent to jail for six months with hard labour for having $10 worth of marijuana in the school compound. This is much too harsh a punishment, especially if this is a first offence. What is worse is that, according to one news report, the magistrate had announced earlier, after noting that several students had come before her on marijuana charges, that the next student would go "straight to jail". [continues 302 words]
SIPARIA Police have stepped up their activities in the south-western district. Since last Friday a party of police officers have been engaged in a special police exercise to rid the area of drugs and illicit activities. So far they have made 26 arrests and have destroyed a marijuana field in Sudama Village, Siparia. Fifteen thousand trees were destroyed and a man from the village is assisting the police. Police have also found a number of stolen items in an abandoned house at Barrackpore and a villager from Cedros is assisting the police. Spearheading the exercise are Senior Supt Alfonzo, acting Inspector Wells and other policemen from the Siparia CID [end]
There's more to Moruga than drugs. Villagers will tell you about its rich history, excellent fishing grounds, breathtaking landscape. Some like Peter Glodon will says its where "civilisation" began in Trinidad, when 503 years ago Christopher Columbus landed at Moruga. And many will say there has not been much progress since then in the little seaside village on the south east coast , where roads and public utilities are either non-existent or badly run down. And don't try using a cell-phone in Moruga.They don't work. As Fr Ian Taylor, parish priest for the area, will tell you. [continues 745 words]
Whatever the general state of insecurity that now besets the world, the state of Trinidad and Tobago stems from the continuing climb in crime and, more specifically, the rise in the number of murders. These murders run the full range from domestic to gang killings and while much has been said and written about the bloody crimes of passion there has been an ominous silence with respect to the murders that police have been ritually ascribing to drug-related gang warfare. [continues 473 words]
