Trinidadian Cannabis Activist Arrested Outside Parliament Under Summary Offences Act, Which Deals With “violent language and breach of the peace”

On October 18, 2019, activist Nazma Muller stood on the pavement outside Trinidad and Tobago’s parliament to continue to press the government to enact existing medical marijuana legislation.

In a Facebook post that morning, she announced that she would be “outside Parliament from noon to 3 pm reminding the prime minister of his promise to decriminalise cannabis and make it available for personal and medical use by June 30 of this year.”

Muller has vowed to “be there every Friday until he keeps his promise” — but on this particular Friday, the police arrested her under Section 49 of the country’s Summary Offences Act, which deals with “violent language and breach of the peace” — a law which some view as counterintuitive to the freedom of expression that is enshrined in the Constitution.

Jurist and lecturer Jamille Broome, for instance, believes the law to be “very oppressive” and thinks “the only limit on obscene language should be when it incites or has the potential to incite violence.”

Anyone arrested under this law faces a fine of $200 Trinidad and Tobago dollars (approximately $30 United States dollars) or 30 days’ imprisonment.

Images posted on Muller’s Facebook page show her being led away by a police officer, who also took away her sign reading, “Honk your horn for the herb.”

Story Source:  https://globalvoices.org/2019/10/25/cry-of-free-the-bleeping-weed-leads-to-arrest-of-trinidadian-cannabis-advocate/

Her Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/nazma.muller?__tn__=%2CdlC-R-R&eid=ARDVtQ1iy4LOPazxVNCTdoIb9xhEm1NLjF8-78VtQGrFL1PuLKX3muS0sEA7dFquTtMDvq1zeFwXibZC&hc_ref=ARTG9XPbLuOpK-colf8kqsnIja6cJksisvnmw3sLRr3lQftTkLY53EC1Zy87zJAKJuQ

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