Penampang Man Gets Life In Prison For One Cannabis Tree, ‘Dr Ganja’ Escapes Gallows
A young man was sentenced to life imprisonment for having one cannabis tree while Dr Ganja escaped the gallows for growing, possessing and ingesting the drug.
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The Sessions Court in Kota Kinabalu yesterday sentenced 28-year-old Nicklen Jaccqres to life imprisonment with seven strokes of the rotan.
Jaccqres who was unemployed was found guilty of possessing and planting a cannabis tree that weighed 6.38 g in a room of a house in Kg Bahang, Jalan Hungab, Penampang, on 19 August 2020, at 2.40 pm.
He was convicted under Section 6B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and punishable under Section 6B(3) of the same Act which provides for a life imprisonment, and whipping not less than six strokes, on conviction.
Jaccqres was charged in court on 2 Sept 2020 and pleaded not guilty on 14 Jan 2021.
The prosecution had called in six witnesses while the accused was the sole defence witness during the trial. He was represented by counsel PJ Perira while deputy public prosecutor Tham Pou Jin prosecuted the case.
Judge Elsie Primus ordered him to serve his sentence from the date of his arrest in 2020.
Dr Ganja escapes the gallows
In a separate story, “Dr Ganja”, a retired 64-year-old soldier escaped the gallows after the Shah Alam High Court amended the 16 charges against him for trafficking 77.48493 kg and 14.647 litres of drugs to possession yesterday (24 July).
As reported by NST, Captain (R) Amiruddin@Nadarajan Abdullah, faced 18 counts of cultivating marijuana plants, four counts of possessing marijuana and one for ingesting the drug.
Judge Julia Ibrahim gave him a nine-year jail sentence for the 39 charges he had which all took place in a house in Kampung Delek Dalam, Klang at 12.30 pm on 26 May 2017.
Amiruddin was charged under Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, as well as Sections 39A(1), 39A(2) and 15(1)(a) of the same Act. For each of the charges under Section 6 and Section 39A(1), he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. For the Section 39A(2) offence, he got nine years while for Section 15(1)(a), he got six months.
Julia ordered the sentence to run concurrently starting from the date of his arrest in 2017 and for him to be released from prison today as he has already served a third of his sentence.
Julia said that as an ex-army, the accused must have known the existence of the law under the Dangerous Drug Act.
Even though he used marijuana as an alternative treatment for his ailment, Judge Julia also said, “Let this be a deterrent to others who have similar ideas (to use illegal drugs for treatments without permission)”.
Earlier, lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo who represented the accused, informed that her client has various diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
“The accused also previously served in the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) since he was 18 years old with the last position as a captain. Conviction of the accused will cause him to lose his pension and he requests for punishment in the form of a lesson,” she said.
The prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Raja Zaizul Faridah Raja Zaharudin, while Amiruddin was defended by both lawyers Sangeet Kaur Deo and Pravin Mahentharan.
A total of 17 prosecutions and five defence witnesses testified in the trial which started on 8 April 2019.
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