Police investigation into Chris Brown wee smoking is exercise in futility - Lawyer

Samson Lardy Ayenini, Legal practitioner

Legal practitioner, Samson Lardy Ayenini, says the police's attempt to investigate and possibly punish America music star Chris Brown for smoking wee in public is an exercise in futility.

The police announced Monday that they had commenced investigations into allegations that Chris Brown smoked wee on stage during his performance at the Hope City concert at the Accra Sports Stadium on March 5.

Providing legal education on the police investigation in an interview with Myjoyonline.com, Samson, a lawyer at Gaisie Zwennes Hughes & Co., said considering the merits of the incident and the several flaws, the police will lose miserably should the case be presented before court.

The facts
Laying the facts of the incident bare, the lawyer said the music star “is being accused of having smoked weed or marijuana which is a drug that is prohibited by law in Ghana. According to the law, the possession of that drug or smoking of that drug without lawful authority or excuse is an offence.”

He explained that, “In the face of the law, it is not illegal to possess or smoke or sniff or administer the prohibitive drug. It becomes illegal to possess, to sniff, to smoke, or to administer it to yourself if you do not have lawful authority or excuse.”

According to the former News Editor of Joy FM, if an individual is caught in the possession of the illegal drug without lawful authority, that person will suffer a minimum of 10 years imprisonment as stipulated in the Narcotic Drugs (Control, and Enforcement, and Sanctions) Law 1990.

He noted that, Section 5 of the Law deals with usage – smoking, sniffing or administering it into the body or into another person. “If you do so without lawful authority and you are caught, by the law, you will suffer a minimum of five years imprisonment.”

Samson Lardy Ayenini cautioned that before people make a fuss about the star possessing and smoking weed, they need to find out, “has anybody a sample of what Chris Brown is alleged to have smoked in the public. If you have a sample of it and we can prove that the sample you have is what he had allegedly smoked while on the stage, which is being complained of, has it been put to test, have we taken it to the necessary test that is needed to prove positive that whatever it was - weed or marijuana – it is what it was.”

The first step, he advised, is to get a sample of what Mr Brown had, which must be the one that he was actually smoking, and the sample must be tested and the results must be positive.

Mr. Ayenini observed that many people were making unnecessary noise about the issue when in fact, Chris Brown, “has already left the country and on that day he was not apprehended by the police or anybody or the people who have gone to complain to the police.”

Prior to Chris Brown's departure, the police, he said, had “a right to have apprehended him without a warrant on suspicion of possessing and smoking marijuana and then they would have gone a step further to prove it by testing that it was positive weed or marijuana.”

He lamented that “we have allowed that day to go by; we will certainly not have evidence of samples of what he had on the stage on that day to test,” stressing the police were bound to loss miserably should the case go to court.

On the issue of extraditing Chris Brown from the US to face justice in Ghana, Samson Lardy Ayenini said it was impossible for the Ghana police or the Attorney General to request his extradition.

He explained that extradition is applicable only “where there is a treaty between Ghana and the United States to allow both countries to extradite people who are standing trial for certain charges. The last time I checked I am not sure we have any extradition treaty like that with the United States of America.”

“Granted that we had any extradition treaty” Samson, stressed, Ghana has lost it because “you apply for the extradition of an individual who has been charged with a particular offence. As we speak Chris Brown has not been charged with any offence. There is no offence that has been put against him in any court of law in Ghana for which he has run away and so you will say you will need to bring him,” to stand trial.

Chris Brown's confession
Half way through Chris Brown's impressive 90 minutes performance, he quizzed the over a thousand crowd, “How many of y'all smoked wee?” After that question, he stated: “If anybody tripping on ya'll smoking wee, f**k them.”

"Sh*t, I got my blunt right here” he added and pulled out a neatly rolled stick of what is alleged to be marijuana and lit it and drew in a large volume of it on stage.

Touching on the artiste's confession on stage, Samson said the law will not limit itself to the confession because the substance ought be tested and proven to be the alleged substance.

According to him, in September 2012 Chris once appeared in a court in California, where marijuana is allowed for medicinal purposes, and “Chris Brown was found to be using marijuana anyway but it was not an offence because he had lawful authority to use it for medicinal purposes.”

“To this effect, the police are either wasting everybody's time or lying to cover their shame after failing to act promptly,” he said adding that, “The police are making noise, ugly noise it not worth for anybody.”

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Ernest Dela Aglanu (Twitter: @delaXdela / Instagram: citizendela)