WESTERN BUREAU

Two higglers who at-tempted to leave the island with ganja were each sen-tenced to 30 days in prison and were spared fines when they appeared before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday.

Export ganja

Derrick Stephens of Lionel Town in Clarendon and Marian Townsend of Greater Portmore, St Catherine, each pleaded guilty to possession, dealing in and attempting to export ganja.

Stephens was arrested on August 14 after he admitted to ingesting a quarter pound of ganja. Townsend was arrested on August 21 after a parcel of ganja weighing .75 pounds was taken from her vagina.

Destined to Curacao

The higglers were held as they waited in line to board an Air Jamaica flight destined to Curacao.

Stephens explained to the court that he was taking the drugs for personal use, however Townsend admitted that she would have got US$500 for taking the contraband out of the island.

School expenses

She said that she resorted to drug smuggling in an effort to offset back to school expenses as the fathers of her two underage children had not been assisting.

Resident Magistrate Win-some Henry however re-minded her that there are many other mothers who are going through similar circum-stances but had not resorted to illegal activities.