(Trinidad Guardian) Marijuana activist Nazma Muller is claiming that police infringed her constitutional rights by arresting her outside of Parliament, last Friday.
Muller, who is expected to appear in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court on Monday on a charge of using obscene language, took to social media after she was released on bail, hours after her arrest, to complain.
“How can a man put his hands on me outside the Parliament of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and drag me away beneath my flag?” Muller said.
In a post on her Facebook page, Muller appeared to admit to committing the offence, which carries a $200 fine or 30 days imprisonment upon conviction.
“I was manhandled by a male police officer twice my size for saying, “Free de f—ing weed” once. He grabbed my wrists and dragged me away. The Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago protects my freedom of expression. I will have my day in court on Monday. Jah will defend de I and I,” Muller said.
Muller also claimed that she would continue her protest, this week.
“Next week me a cuss blood cl–t. It not obscene here,” a defiant Muller said.
Mueller, the founder of the Caribbean Collective for Justice, a registered NGO, was one of several persons who protested the Government’s delay in bringing legislation for the decriminalisation of marijuana.
Over the past year, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi led public consultations on the issue and had promised to introduce the legislation in Parliament after the debate on the Budget is completed.
Last year, Caricom’s Marijuana Commission led by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Dean of Law Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, published a report calling for member states to introduce decriminalisation.
Marijuana has already been decriminalised in Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda.