The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) is questioning whether the court considered the “great hardships” prisoners on remand experience when it denied bail to an 18-year-old woman charged with possession of marijuana.
Refusal of bail was particularly disturbing as a growing number of countries across the globe continue to decriminalise and downgrade marijuana to a third-rate drug.
In a press release the GHRA said that according to a Stabroek News article published yesterday, the woman was charged with possession of 26 grams of the narcotic and was refused bail on the grounds of the seriousness of the offence.
In the light of the fact that a growing number of countries have taken a decision to de-criminalise and downgrade the classification of marijuana to a second or third-rate drug the courts should stop treating marijuana possession as a non-bailable offence, the GHRA said.
According to the article, CID ranks on patrol observed the woman acting in a suspicious manner, followed her to a Kitty home and performed a search where they unearthed a “white bottle containing leaves and stems suspected to be marijuana.”
The GHRA questioned whether the charge that the woman had been “acting in a suspicious manner on the street” was a ploy to get into the house without a search warrant and further, whether “male police officers are allowed to enter homes in pursuit of young females?” The Association contends that given the number of incidents of police misconduct in terms of preying on innocent people for “a raise” or other favours, denial of bail requires rigorous justification.
The GHRA says the practice of finding narcotics in a house and police charging whomever happens to be on the premises is an abuse that has resulted in many innocent people being jailed over the years. Several cases have ended with men being imprisoned at the Camp Street jail and their partners at the New Amsterdam Prison for a statutory three-year sentence over small quantities of marijuana, causing great hardships to children and other relatives.
According to the Association, the “cruel and inhumane consequences associated with being on remand in the police lock-up, especially for young females” are too readily accepted. Moreover, in circumstances where the justice system seems incapable of curbing the lively cocaine trade, “the case in question smacks of hypocrisy and bullying.”
