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Police v Siaosi [2010] WSSC 160 (1 November 2010)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SAMOA
HELD AT MULINUU

BETWEEN:

THE POLICE
Informant

AND:

MANASE TUPUA SIAOSI, male of Alafua, Vaimoso and Satupaitea.
Defendant

Counsel: F. Vaai and D. Niumata for prosecution
Defendant unrepresented

Sentence: 1 November 2010

SENTENCE

This defendant appears for sentence on a charge of possession of the following: 8 seeds of marijuana, 26 marijuana cigarettes plus an assortment of loose leaves. He is according to the summary of facts a 23 year old male from the villages of Vaimoso and Alafua where he is currently residing. He is single and undertakes employment as a member of a crew of a fishing boat.

On or about 10am Friday 24 September this year a police informer reported that the defendant was selling marijuana in front of Siaosi's shop at Lotopa. The officers on duty attended the call and noticed the defendant at the shop. They carried out a body search of the defendant based on the information they had received. It appears from the summary of facts nothing was found on this body search but the officers then took him to the police station for further investigation. The defendant had a handbag and that was searched there by the police and the marijuana substances referred to above were discovered inside the bag. Defendant was accordingly charged with possession of the substances a charge to which he has pleaded guilty. A charge which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment pursuant to the new amendment by Parliament last year increasing the penalty for this sort of offence from 7 years to 14 years.

This is a significant amendment by Parliament because it also increased the penalty for possession of the harder drugs such as ice, cocaine and heroin from its previous level to a maximum now of life imprisonment. An obvious recognition by Parliament of the spread of drug offending in our community and represents Parliaments response to the growing drug problem. One would hope that Parliament would soon also come to recognize increasing the maximum penalty is only one way to combat the problem. There are other measures that are also urgently required. For example drug rehabilitation and treatment programs for offenders, preventive programs in schools and villages targeting the young adult group which seems to be where most drug offenders come from and also programs targeting specific villages where the statistic show a lot of drug offending is prevalent. It would be unfair to name those particular villages but I am sure the Alii and Faipule of those villages have their hands full with the drug offending and that their village councils would welcome the assistance of the national Government to try and combat the problem at a local level.

In this case it is clear from the summary of facts that this defendant was trying to sell marijuana at one of the popular local shops in the area he was residing. He admitted this to the Probation Office but he says that this is the first time that he was doing this. I do not know if that is the truth or not but whatever the case may be on this occasion you have admitted to selling and distributing marijuana for commercial gain and in relation to such people the court has in the past said that drug dealers and distributors should be aware because the court would be ruthless in its treatment of them in order to try and stop this disease infecting all especially the younger members of our community. The message should be there is no future in selling or being involved in drugs. Mr Manase an imprisonment penalty is required for your case, the real question is how long.

Considering the circumstances of this case and the new maximum penalties imposed and bearing in mind the need not to dramatically increase sentences overnight a three year start point is appropriate. But the defendant has some factors in his favour that requires a discounting of that penalty. Firstly for the guilty plea I deduct one-third of his time namely a period of 12 months, leaves a balance of 2 years. Manase is a first offender and there are other factors in his favour in the Probation Office pre-sentence report. I also accept Manase what appears to be a genuine expression of your remorse made by you this morning to the court. For all those factors I deduct a further period of 12 months from your sentence. That leaves a balance of 12 months.

For this matter you are therefore convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison on this charge. Any period spent in custody awaiting sentence is to be deducted from that.

JUSTICE NELSON