An American visitor, who had come to Cayman for a conference last week, pleaded guilty in Summary Court Monday to importing a controlled drug, after customs officers found cannabis gummies in her bag.
The court heard that the 39-year-old mother had arrived at Owen Roberts International Airport on Sunday, 17 May, on a flight from Houston, Texas. During a search of her suitcase, a vitamin bottle inside her toiletries bag was found to contain 21 gummies, which she admitted may contain cannabidiol, or CBD.
She was arrested and interviewed under caution, stating she had unintentionally brought the gummies with her, and had not realised it was illegal to do so.
Forensic analysis of the gummies found they contained Delta-9 THC, Delta-8 THC and CBD.
Crown prosecutor Andre Wedderburn told the court that the woman had admitted in an interview that she had put the gummies in the Vitamin D bottle in a bid to consolidate items. He said she had told officers she used the gummies for medicinal purposes and that this was her first trip to Cayman.
Defence lawyer Lauren Miranda, representing the woman, said she had unintentionally brought the gummies with her as she had packed in a hurry and had not even realised that the vitamin bottle was in her toiletries bag. “Not withstanding that,” she added, “she also didn’t know that the gummies were illegal here”.
She said the woman does not consume the gummies regularly, and had bought them several months earlier to help her sleep and for management of her anxiety. She told the court that one of the reasons the woman had put the gummies in a vitamin bottle was to hide them from her children so they would not access them.
Saying her client was “extremely remorseful”, Miranda urged Chief Magistrate Angelyn Hernandez to record no conviction and to discharge the woman.
Hernandez, in passing sentence, said she accepted that there were extenuating circumstances, and that any harm caused was low. She granted the woman an absolute discharge and recorded no conviction, but ordered her to pay $1,000 in costs.
The Compass is not naming the woman as no conviction was recorded.
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