A self-confessed Rastafarian drug dealer argued to
A self-confessed Rastafarian drug dealer argued today (wed) that European human rights laws mean he should be allowed to sell cannabis on the street as part of his religion.
Rasta Brown, 39, admitted to police he was trying to sell wraps of herbal cannabis, hidden in his boxer shorts, outside a Brixton pub to support ‘the mothers of his children.
‘
But in a ‘full and frank’ interview after his arrest Brown told police ‘it was strictly a money thing’ – and that it was not anything to do with his
beliefs.
Brown pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis and two charges of possession with intent to supply at Camberwell Magistrates’ Court after his arrest in
June last year.
But after the European Convention on Human Rights came into effect in October this year, Brown has applied to change the plea to not guilty.
He argues that Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights protects the rights of a EU citizen to freedom of religion.
But prosecutor Jennifer Knight told Inner London Crown Court that Brown’s comment to police that his actions were ‘strictly a money thing’ undermined
his religious belief argument.
She told the court Brown was arrrested standing outside the fashionable Bug Bar near St Matthew’s Church in the centre of Brixton.
He had approached a plain-clothes police officer and said: ‘Do you want to buy some weed?’
The officer found seven wraps of cannabis hidden in his pants.
Miss Knight added: ‘He went out to supply cannabis for financial gain.
He said it was nothing
to do with supplying the Rastafarian community, but did it because he had a plan to pay off the purchase of a cannabis block, and for money to support the mothers of his children.
‘He said he had to go out and earn some money.
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She added: ‘If this was a case where Rasta Brown was in his own home, surrounded by others in his community, making a medicinal infusion, or to
use as a sacrament it would be a very different case.
‘
She added that the idea it had anything to do with the religion was ‘farcical’.
But defence barrister Rufus D’Cruz said the fact that Brown used the drug to earn money did not mean a large 128 gramme block found at Brown’s south London home ‘could not be used for other reasons’.
Quoting Brown, he said: ‘I did have it in my home for other reasons particular to my culture and religion.
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Mr D’Cruz went on: ‘That’s why it comes under the European Convention of Human Rights.
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He said that if Brown’s guilty plea is not accepted it would allow the Court of Appeal to decide whether the Misuse of Drugs Act is incompatible with the Convention – a power beyond the Crown Court.
Mr D’Cruz went on to compare the use of cannabis by Rastafarians to the use of wine by Christians.
But Judge Charles Gibson interrupted, saying: ‘I cannot say when I open a bottle of wine I’m manifesting my religion.
‘I’m a very religious person if that is so.
‘
The judge who will finally decide whether to accept the not guilty plea on Monday next week, said that there was a strong body of opinion supporting
the legalisation of cannabis.
Judge Gibson said: ‘There’s a body of belief, held by perfectly respectable people, who take the view, contrary to the present government and the last
government that the law as it stands is inappropriate.
‘As I understand it lots of people entertain the belief and argue it very coherently.
‘You can go into a bar in Amsterdam and order a cup of coffee and enjoy it.
‘I hasten to point out that I read this in the newspaper, rather than through my own personal experience.
‘
The judge added: ‘I’ve never been to Amsterdam.
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Brown, of Stockwell Gardens, Stockwell will appear at a further hearing at Inner London Crown Court on 18 December, when the judge will make his final
decision.
He originally pleaded guilty to possession of 516 milligrams of cannabis, and possession with intent to supply 20.
36 grams and 128.
71 grams of the
drug.
ends
