Rastafari man given 80 hours' service for 0.6 g smoked at San Fernando rally
Police arrested Makaan Grant, 27, for possession of 0.6 grammes of marijuana as he smoked a joint at the All Mansions of Rastafari's cannabis rally in Skinner Park, San Fernando, on 27 January 2019. He pleaded guilty the next morning and a magistrate ordered 80 hours of community service.
🇹🇹 Skinner Park, San Fernando, Trinidad · Trinidad and Tobago
Arrested
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Charged
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Agencies
Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, San Fernando Magistrates' Court
Police arrested Makaan Grant, 27, of Curepe for possession of cannabis during
the All Mansions of Rastafari’s national cannabis rally at Skinner Park, San
Fernando, on Sunday 27 January 2019.[1]Rastas chanted for equal rights and
justice after the arrest, and eyewitnesses claimed the arresting officer was
intoxicated on duty and called for him to be breathalysed.[1]The arrest
prompted a short-lived clash between police and rally participants before the
crowd cooled and returned to the space set aside for the event.[1]
Close to 50 uniformed officers, several marked police vehicles and a bus were
stationed around the rally, and officers walked throughout the crowd.[1]It
was AMOR’s second national cannabis rally and the first after a
government-organised public consultation on decriminalising cannabis; the first
was held in October at Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain.[1]Bongo Grease of AMOR
said organisers faced attempts to shut the rally down over a missing dancehall
licence and cancelled some scheduled entertainers to keep the event on.[1]
Grant was arrested at about 6 pm at the height of the rally.[2]A police
prosecutor said a corporal saw Grant walking on the outer perimeter of Skinner
Park smoking a cigarette of unusual length, and Grant replied, “Boss, is just a
lil smoke I have.”[2]Grant pleaded guilty to having 0.6 grammes of marijuana.[2]
In the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court the next morning, magistrate Alicia
Chankar ordered Grant to perform 80 hours of community service, starting the
following Monday and finishing by 30 June.[2]Chankar told Grant that
marijuana possession, despite the heated debate, is still illegal, and that
walking and smoking in full view of people was a blatant violation.[2]Grant
told the magistrate he smoked the herb in accordance with his Rastafarian belief
and culture, and a member of AMOR was present for the hearing.[2]
The Port-of-Spain rally the Guardian calls the first had passed off differently
in police terms, and the discourse around it was the decriminalisation
consultation rather than a court case.[1]
Stabroek News republished the Guardian’s account of the arrest under its own
headline.[3]
Photos and video
Arrest of Makaan Grant, 27, of Curepe, for cannabis possession at the All Mansions of Rastafari rally in San Fernando on 27 January 2019. Photo: Joel Julien / Trinidad and Tobago GuardianPhoto details
The Guardian gives Grant's address as Curepe, while Newsday gives it as Maracas, and Newsday's photograph caption spells the magistrate's name Chanka while its text says Chankar.
The Guardian does not give the amount of cannabis or report any charge or court appearance; the weight, plea and sentence come from the Newsday court report.
The claimed intoxication of the arresting officer rests on eyewitnesses quoted by the Guardian; no disciplinary or other outcome for the officer was reported.
No separate year is stated for the October rally in Port-of-Spain that the Guardian calls the first; the report does not date it.
Newsday's three courtroom photographs are linkable only through a Wayback capture, so no direct image address could be confirmed and only the Guardian's arrest photograph is listed.
The Guardian's page does not say whether Grant was released on bail before his appearance, so no released figure is recorded.
Stabroek News republishes the Guardian text in its regional section and no separate Stabroek reporting on the case was found, so it is not treated as an independent second account.
Trinidad and Tobago police arrested six people during Operation R.E.S.O.L.U.T.E. Shield sweeps in the Siparia, Santa Flora and Erin districts on 9 September 2026, four of them at a Francis Trace, Santa Flora residence over marijuana possession. A 19-year-old priority offender allegedly had 320 grammes of marijuana.
Police held a 22-year-old man in Moruga on 17 September 2025 for possessing 2.02 kg of marijuana for trafficking, and found another 186.1 g unattended in Basse Terre. Two other men were held in the same joint exercise for drunk driving and a larceny inquiry, while officers issued 20 traffic notices.
Trinidad and Tobago police arrested a Trincity man on 15 August 2025 after they saw him pass two foil packets of cannabis through a gate on Dickson Street, Arouca, during a roving North-Central Division operation. A search found the packets and cash, and he was held at Arouca Police Station for trafficking in cannabis.
Central Division officers searched the home of a 21-year-old man on Southern Main Road, Caroni, and found four packages of marijuana weighing 2.1 kg, which police valued at TT$65,000. The man was arrested and taken with the drugs to the Couva Police Station, where inquiries continued.
