A BULGARIAN man who was holidaying in the Bahamas must pay the court $500 or go to prison for six months for possessing three grams of cocaine.
Konstantin Kavrakov, 29, who lives in Bolivia, admitted to being a drug user yesterday after pleading guilty to possession of dangerous drugs before Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell.
Taking into consideration that the man did not waste the court’s time, the magistrate said she would fine him $500 or give him six months in prison.
Kavrakov said he could pay the fine if given a few days to have money transferred to a Western Union account.
He also said that he had $1,400 in his luggage when police arrested him at the Nassau Palm Hotel on Wednesday but he had not been given any receipt to say how he could collect his belongings upon release.
The magistrate said she would have her staff look into the matter.
Comments
vigilant_citizen 11 years, 2 months ago
I find it highly rediculous that possession of cocaine allows a man to be fined and released by the court ($500) and in a previous case possession with intent to supply ($5000). Where as possession of Marijuana with a conviction results in prison time. I truly hope its not just me who can see the grossly unjust skewing of our laws for "particular dangerous drugs" which a person cannot overdose on, does not make you violent and in some countries used as medicine for various conditions with greater efficacy and little to no side effects than prescription medications.
gangof4 11 years, 1 month ago
I totally agree with you. It never ceases to amaze me that a country as broke as we are is wasting valuable resources arresting, charging and convicting individuals (and especially young persons) for possession of "....one gram of Indian hemp (marijuana)" which has a street value of approximately $2 or $3!!! Surely, a warning for the first offence, followed by the issuance of something like the equivalent of a speeding fine, i.e. $75 or even $100 the second time, would make a whole lot more sense and then the mandatory attendance to rehab classes would follow. This makes even more sense when you see major cocaine dealers electing to go to magistrates court and getting 3 or 4 year sentences (with no confiscation of assets) for having 5 to 10 kilos of coke (or more) with a value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars (and sometimes in the millions) that can literally destroy whole communities, the Bahamas in the 1980s and early 1990s being a perfect example. And many, many more Bahamians die each year of illnesses related to tobacco and alcohol than marijuana has ever caused. When it comes to "weed", we should be doing a lot more education rather than incarceration as opposed to cocaine where the penalties should be life in prison, or something close. Our laws, as they stand now, are absolutely ridiculous!!
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID