Man who sold cannabis because of hard times sent to jail
BVI News Staff - Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at 1:03 PM
A man who fell on hard times and decided to sell cannabis to help pay his bills was today, May 24 sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Bevinton Linton was before the court facing the charge of unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to supply. The court was told that the drug weighed 260 grams and has a street value of $2,060.
The defendant, who said that he is an expectant father, pleaded guilty to the offense on March 16.
Magistrate Tamia Richards, in handing down her sentence, recalled that the defendant had said during a previous appearance: “I didn’t have to do it, but I wasn’t working… I had the opportunity to purchase and resell it… I have a girlfriend, she is having a baby in June and I needed money to clear up some bills.”
However the magistrate said his reasoning is unacceptable.
“We all may fall on hard times but it is never an excuse to break the law,” the magistrate said.
The magistrate added that she took into account the defendant’s previous good character and the fact that he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. Nonetheless, she said she had to balance the aggravating and mitigating factors. She said there are a number of aggravating factors, including the fact that it was a large quantity, the prevalence of the offense, and the fact that he was going to sell the drugs, and had 158 dime bags packaged off to be sold.
The fact of the matter is that on March 14, 2012 at about 10:30, officers were on patrol in the Huntums Ghut area and observed Linton and a few other male persons. The men were acting suspicious.
Linton had a black bag in his possession, and as the officers approached him, he ran and threw the bag into the bushes. The officers who gave chase caught up with him and retrieved the bag. In the bag they found 158 dime bags containing what appeared to be vegetable matter.
Copyright 2013 BVI News, Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
13 Comments
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The entire world and for thousands of years has been exposed to marijuana yet we remain so God dmn ignorant? and we choose to legalize cigarettes and booze?….WTF!
FREE MARIJUANA!!!
I really think the magistrate is to hard at times.This is a young man expecting a child,He didn’t go and steal or stick up anyone.He told the magistrate the truth,he fell on hard times and he sold weed to pay he bills.Jobs are so hard to fine.They give who they want their jobs.In my opion she should of given him a hash warning seen that he had no criminial records before.Now he has a record that will follow him for this rest of his life and make it more diffcult for him to get a job.one year in prison. What going happen to the baby now?
FREE THE WEED!
Zero Tolerance to the breaking of any laws. If you want to live in a lawless society move to Somalia.
Bye bye
when the magistrate’s brother case comes up, i am anxious to see how she will deal with it
Get some nice rest.
you all need to vote for Dougie
and make him Minister of Ganga
What in the world is wrong with this magistrate??? People breaking houses, taking our stuff and our security and getting barely any time and this man, who is a first offender gets a year for selling weed? Was she smoking it at the time she made this judgment? This is a shame. Somebody, whoever she’s for, really need to talk to her!!!!! She a BVIslander like us…she shaming us man!!!!
the man is a expat, instead of free food for a year then a free plane ticket, just give him the plane ticket one time.
LEGALIZE IT!!
The earlier they scrap these useless laws, the better for society. Man is free to kill himself with alcohol and cigarettes but goes to jail foer a little weed.
ouch
LOL
There has to be a better way of dealing with this nonsense than for us to feed him for 12months…clearly he needed the $$$ or would have paid a fine. The BVI needs to rethink it’s marijuana legislation policy.
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