Disabled T&T woman fined for ganja ‘to ease pain’
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Trinidad Express) — An unemployed disabled woman, who said she has been trying without success to get a disability grant for eight years, was yesterday convicted for possession of 14 grams of marijuana and fined TT$2,500.
Michaeline Wall said she planned to take the drugs for the pain in her feet.
Wall, 26, was born with club feet. The condition is also called congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV), a deformity involving one foot or both feet. The affected foot appears to have been rotated internally at the ankle. Without treatment, people with this condition often appear to walk on their ankles or on the sides of their feet.
When she appeared before San Fernando Magistrate Brambhanan Dubay, Wall admitted that she had the drugs in her possession.
Sgt Gordon Maharaj told the court that at 5.30 pm on Sunday at George Street, La Romaine, Wall was asked if she had anything illegal in her possession. She took a black bag containing 11 packets of marijuana out of her pants pocket.
Wall showed Dubay her feet and said: “I bought it (the marijuana) to easy up the pain.”
Told by the magistrate that there were tablets she could take, the unemployed woman said after using painkillers, the pain would return. Wall aspires to become a welder.
Dubay fined her TT$2,500. In default of paying the fine Wall will serve 12 months in prison. She was given two months to pay the money.
As she was led out the court in handcuffs, the magistrate warned Wall: “Do not get tied up in this marijuana thing again.”
After her release Wall told reporters that she had completed a course in basic welding seven months ago. She said she wants to become an offshore or underwater welder. “I can handle my stories,” she said.
Wall, of La Romaine, also said she had been applying for a disability grant for the past eight years but without success. She said she was told that her father was a working man. Wall denied this as she told reporters that her father was ill.
Attorney Frank Gittens said he will assist Wall to get the grant.
