Criminal Indictment for 1.3 Grams, By Ziv Genesove

A criminal indictment for the personal use of cannabis was filed last April against a young lad from Jerusalem, about a year after the police seized 1.3 grams of cannabis in the closet of his apartment.

In times where political candidates promise full legalization in their election campaign, a 24-year-old resident of Jerusalem was captured last year (05/05/20) with cannabis weighing 1.32 grams, and, during the last month (April), it was decided to accuse him on criminal charges for “the personal use of a dangerous drug”, although the weight of the Cannabis found was on the lowest threshold of “personal use” (up to 15 grams), and the value of it was less than 100 NIS (about 22 GBP), and despite the fact that the cannabis was located on private property, the State Attorney’s Office decided to indict him.In addition, the state clarifies that “there is a possibility that the prosecution will appeal for actual imprisonment”.

No Less than six prosecution witnesses from the police are expected to testify in the case. According to the indictment “on 05/05/2020 at 18:44, the defendant held a dangerous drug (cannabis) with a total weight of 1.32 grams in his apartment in Jerusalem.

“The defendant kept the dangerous drug in the closet located at the balcony of the apartment, it was divided into two pieces. next to it, the defendant held a digital scale used to weigh the dangerous drug.”Finally, it was written that “By these acts, the defendant possessed a dangerous drug in violation of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance” therefore the young man is charged with the offense of “possession and use of drugs for personal use.”

Last March, the Israeli “Cannabis” magazine revealed that every 4 hours an indictment is filed in Israel for personal-use of cannabis, although in most cases this is in combination with some ancillary offense, such as “Interference with a police officer while on duty”. However, the present indictment does not state that any ancillary offense was committed and therefore the indictment was filed for self-use only.

This policy of filing indictments for the personal use of cannabis, certainly in minimal quantities and especially when the consumption is been held in a private home and not in public, is ostensibly contrary to the promises of former Internal Security Minister, Gilad Ardan, when he implemented the new Decriminalization Law.

The Israel Police stated: “The search was carried out legally by court order, during which the suspect’s substance was found to be illegal. Naturally, we will not detail the suspect’s criminal past, but we will note that an investigation conducted in his case revealed that he is not entitled to receive an administrative report in this case, in accordance with the criteria outlined in the law. Following the conclusion of the investigation, an indictment was filed against him.”