Dubai: A student has been jailed for three months for consuming hashish that was stuffed into a chocolate brownies even after she claimed she did not know her friend had laced the cake with the drug.
Citing grounds of leniency considering her age, the Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the 20-year-old Nigerian student, K.E., to three months in jail.
She was convicted of possessing 0.6 grammes of marijuana and consuming hashish on November 4.
When the student defended herself in court, she said: “I did not consume any drug...my friend got a big chocolate brownie and I ate from it without knowing that it contained hashish.”
Her lawyer asked the court to dismiss the drug charges against his client because she did know that she ate a hashish-laced brownie.
Drugs prosecutors charged K.E. with possessing a paper pouch that contained marijuana. She was also accused of consuming tetra hydro cannabinol, an active component of hashish.
“I was not in possession of marijuana. The seized item belonged to my friend and wasn’t mine. I consumed hashish without knowing because it was in the brownie,” the woman told presiding judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi.
Her lawyer also asked the court to treat his client with leniency considering the fact she was young.
Presiding judge Al Mahdi said the accused will be deported after serving her jail term.
An anti-narcotics police corporal said an informant alerted them that the student possessed and consumed drugs.
“We obtained prosecutors’ permission to arrest and search the student, her car and residence. An anti-narcotics police squad raided her residence at Dubai Marina. A policewoman searched her residence and found a cigarette butt and she immediately confessed that it was stuffed with marijuana. She took out the marijuana pouch from a drawer beside her bed,” the corporal said.
Dubai Police’s forensic laboratory confirmed that the defendant tested positive for hashish.
Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
