WITH A SMALL group of demonstrators in support, protesting at the front of Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, the sentencing of Mark 'Buju Banton' Myrie was put off until April 5 when the entertainer appeared in court yesterday.
Myrie returned to court yesterday after being found guilty on Friday of one count each of cultivation and possession of ganja.
Free di weed
Before proceedings even began, a handful of supporters bearing placards with slogans calling for the decriminalisation and legalisation of ganja, gathered before the courthouse on Maxfield Avenue. "I love Buju and I love herb," said one of the supporters," said a dreadlocked middle-aged woman. "I would love to see it free up. Bun out di coke and di gun but free up di herb."
Another protestor said; "It mek clothes and it mek rope and tea. It good fi glaucoma and asthma so we a ask dem fi free it up."
Inside the courtroom, the mood was totally different. Myrie, dressed in black, stood silently in the docks while his attorney, Christopher Dunkley, asked Resident Magistrate Kissock Laing to use his discretion in handing down sentence. He asked that the matter be pushed back as his client had engagements overseas but would return in time for sentencing. He also said he needed to consult two authorities as it pertained to history of such cases. It was then that the attorney reiterated his request that RM Laing exercise his discretion which he hoped would not record a conviction.
Myrie was arrested last December while the police were carrying out a raid in upper St. Andrew. The police reportedly entered Myrie's premises and during a search they discovered fully-grown marijuana plants.
