Before Magistrate Geeta Chandan Edmond Persid, at New Amsterdam Court, in Berbice, too, the prisoner admitted having two grammes of cannabis (marijuana) in his possession but his sentence was deferred.

The 22-year-old told the Court he had previously been struck by a lighting bolt and, since hospitalisation, he, sometimes, suffers severe tension in the neck and headache.

Griffith said, as a consequence, he seeks relief from portions of the narcotic.

However, the magistrate said she found it difficult to believe his narrative, especially because he could not remember the date of the accident nor when he was hospitalised.

Griffith’s mother, who was present, said a doctor at the hospital had ordered a head scan for her son but the family could not afford it.

But she denied recommending the drug use.

The Court requested the doctor’s certificate be tendered on the day of sentencing, February 27.

Earlier, Police Inspector Satrohan Dayaram, prosecuting, said Griffith was arrested on Matthew Allen Public Road, in New Amsterdam, where a search of his person yielded a silver foil in which leaves, seeds and stems of the cannabis plant, weighing two grammes.