The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE police and the Attorney General's Office have "a conflict" over prosecution of cannabis possession and intent to supply, according to former Minister of State for National Security Keith Bell.

Mr Bell told participants in a public forum last week that people are charged with intent to supply under the Dangerous Drugs Act if they are caught with more than two packets, but no regard is given to subsidiary legislation that provides a weight guideline.

Retired legal scholar Arthur Dion Hanna Jr explained the country lost "a whole generation" to this phenomenon before the advent of discretionary sentencing.

"In this country, when that offence first came up, intent to supply, it was like a tragic moment in our society," said Mr Hanna, former director of the Legal Aid Clinic at the Eugene Dupuch Law School. "I witnessed young men being charged with intent to supply for two small half bag. I would sit down and hear young people plead guilty and I'd look up to the magistrate and I would say, 'you know they don't understand what they are asked to plead to.'"

Mr Hanna said after consultation, the accused would invariably change their plea to guilty of possession, but not guilty of intent to supply.

"And invariably the prosecutors would accept it," Mr Hanna continued, "because the prosecutors knew. But we were sending children, young kids, to jail for two years on mandatory sentence, and that was before we started to use a discretion in our sentences practices.

"So I think one of the things you have to take into account is how do we salvage the lost generation that we have thrown away. These are our scientists, they could have been our doctors, lawyers. It's a whole generation we have lost."

The men were attending Thursday's public forum hosted by the Bahamas Bar Association at the University of the Bahamas under the theme: "Implications of Marijuana: Legalisation, Decriminalisation and Regulation."

Panelists included Bjorn Ferguson, attorney at BRF Chambers; Dr Indira Martin, biomedical scientist and director of the Public Health Lab; and Quinn McCartney, co-chair of the Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana.

The event was staged as part of the Bahamas Bar Association's Training Day 2019 events, which honoured the late Chief Justice Stephen Isaacs. Mr Isaacs reportedly advocated for the legalisation of cannabis as a young lawyer, according to Mr Hanna in a tribute to the former justice earlier that day.

"(Mr Isaacs) never shied away from controversy," Mr Hanna said in his tribute, "always prepared to speak truth to power, and I think a programme I did with him, when we advocated the legalisation of cannabis, was instrumental in our (weekly radio programme on ZNS) being cancelled."

During a question and answer period, Mr Bell spoke of his experience as a former police officer with oversight of research and planning of police prosecutions. He acknowledged the Dangerous Drugs Act, and its later amendments, were established as a response to issues of addiction and trafficking, but said he believed it went too far. Mr Bell explained while legislators were trying to net major traffickers, many people were excessively punished for personal consumption.

Mr Bell said his position on such prosecutions led to him being ostracised by "top brass", adding the trend was a contributing factor to his resignation.

"Even if we don't decriminalise marijuana for recreational purposes," Mr Bell said, "at the very least we cannot continue to make criminals of our young men."

Mr Bell has previously advocated for treatment for addiction for minor possession as an alternative to criminalisation, and on Thursday, he called on the commission to utilise research conducted by the University of the Bahamas on prisoners. He further noted the prison population could be used to explore whether there was any direct correlation between drug use and crime.

"The concern I had," Mr Bell said, "is where in the Dangerous Drugs Act it says where a person is found in possession of two or more packets then there is presumed intent to supply. In the Dangerous Drugs subsidiary legislation, there is a schedule that says what gives rise to presumption and it says it is supposed to be 500 grams of marijuana.

"It seems that the police and the attorney general have a conflict because police have been charging persons who have been found in possession of two packets...so if the police lock you up with several packages that means you can be charged with intent to supply, that can't be expunged from your record."