May 2024
7 reports. Sentences 5 · Seizures 2
Fiji’s appeal court cuts two cannabis growers’ prison terms by four years
Waisake Kaloulia’s nineteen-year cannabis cultivation sentence was reduced to fifteen years, and Kaminieli Naqeleca’s eighteen years to fourteen. The Court of Appeal applied its newer plant-count and role guidelines to the men’s older case, involving a remote plantation with at least 208 whole plants confirmed in the analyst’s report.
Vanuatu suspends a five-plant sentence after months already spent in custody
A first offender who grew five cannabis plants weighing 15.5 grams received a suspended sentence, sixty hours of community work and six months’ supervision.[@1] Brightly Kaiding had already spent three months and two days in custody before bail, which the court deducted from a nine-month term, leaving five months and twenty-eight days suspended for two years.[@1] The court treated the grow…
Gibraltar fines and disqualifies a driver after a positive cannabis test
A driver was fined £250 and disqualified for eight months after testing at not less than 3.8 micrograms of THC per litre of blood. Police had stopped his erratically driven car in November 2023.
Police seize 19 kg of drugs in the first months of 2024
Police said 56 operations had seized about 19 kg of drugs by mid-May 2024, with a street value of MVR 104 million. They had arrested 260 Maldivians and 16 foreigners, opened 257 drug cases, sent 95 to the Prosecutor General and reported shutting five drug networks. The figures covered all drugs, not cannabis alone.
Isle of Man court fines a woman for half a gram of cannabis
A woman received a £300 fine and £125 costs for possessing half a gram of cannabis. The reported case shows that a small personal quantity can still lead to a court penalty alongside the island's referral options for eligible offenders.
Nauru police record 175 offences in the first quarter
Police recorded 175 crime offences in the first quarter of 2024 across categories including illicit drug use and possession, but published no drug-specific breakdown. The figure covers all crime, not cannabis alone.
Mozambique's top court cuts a cannabis seller's sentence to six years
The Supreme Court reduced Raiva Rafael Meponda's seventeen-year sentence to six years and a 30,000-metical fine after police found 590 grams of cannabis in 232 portions at his Maputo home. The judges rejected his personal-use argument but treated his simple, direct sales without an organisation as small-scale trafficking.