KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – Commissioner of Police Keith Miller has no immediate plans to begin offering station bail to person arrested for possession of drugs — not even a marijuana cigarette, commonly called a “spliff”.
“I met a policy where persons who are arrested for possession of illegal drugs, they do not get station bail. I believe that my predecessors, as I do now, take a hard line approach to possession of drugs,” said Miller, who has been police chief for six years.
“One may say it is just a ‘spliff’ but I have seen situations where even one ‘spliff’ caused other things to happen. So, I’m practising, I’m still upholding that policy,” Miller said on radio last week.
“… I believe that we have to set an example. Be it a ‘spliff’, it is still on the books and we have to enforce the law as much as possible. Some people may not agree but until we can see something otherwise, it is a policy I may not change from very soon,” Miller further stated.
Meanwhile Miller said that some persons are arrested for actual bodily harm or abusive language are sometimes refused bail because of the condition they are in when arrested.
He further said that in court, the police will object to bail if they believe that the accused will continue in the furtherance of the office, or will be a threat to the victim or anyone else.