A Whiff of Smoke

A Whiff of Smoke
by
Austin Mitchell
Sometimes in the 1990’s I was going to Kinston when on reaching a section of Marcus Garvey Drive we were signalled by the police to stop. The driver obeyed the order. Now one of the cardinal rules when you are on a bus signalled to stop by the police is not to let any passenger dump any illegal stuff on you. A policeman entered the bus and sniffed.
“I smell ganja. All of you will have to come out of the bus so that I can search it,” he told us.
Some of the passengers told him that he was wasting their time as
no marijuana was on the bus. The policemen insisted that they
wanted to search the bus and also the passengers. All of us got up
wearily out of our seats and began filing out of the bus. A young man
from the back of the bus stood on the bus seat and literally flew
through a window. He was off before the police could gather their wits,
rounded a corner and was gone. The police gave chase but soon gave it
up. However we were boarding the bus again when we saw a patrol car
coming with him aboard. It was revealed that he had a bag of
weed on him. He was probably going to sell it in Kingston. He was
handcuffed on the spot. I suppose that he was charged with dealing in
and possession of marijuana.
When we were again on our way a dreadlocks said that the guy was stupid. He was the one who had been smoking the marijuana. He had crushed up the rest of it under his feet on the bus floor. All the marijuana seller had to do was to leave his bag on the floor. The police could not charge anyone if nobody owned up to it. Another man said that while he was running away he should have thrown away the marijuana. I thought that maybe things had happened too fast for the man to think properly. Maybe it wasn’t even his marijuana. He was going to sell it on behalf of another person. The End.
ganja, weed-names used in Jamaica for marijuana