Update: Khat Possession Gets You 4.5 To 12… Months
We’ve been kind of obsessed with khat – the leafy miracle drug that has brought Yemen to its knees — ever since we heard about it last year. Like anything that causes euphoria, mild excitement and feelings of god-like-ness, the U.S. criminalization of khat is already well underway, and today, we learn of the first PA sentencing in a khat case.
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) _ A man who said he bought khat in New York City has gotten what may be the first jail sentence in Pennsylvania for possession of the drug, commonly used in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Luzerne County Judge Chester Muroski on Friday sentenced the Michigan man to 4 1/2 to 12 months in jail for possession of khat, a flowering evergreen shrub native to East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
Total bummer. Worse still?
Shafi Brmaji, a married father of five who runs a small clothing store in Grand Rapids, Mich., said he has been chewing khat since he was 13 and didn’t know the drug was illegal.
So there’s a cultural part of this at play, too. On the other hand, maybe not: Ol’ Shafi was carrying 50 pounds of the stuff when he got busted, and we’re gonna make a generalization here and say that anyone with 50 pounds of anything has got to know it’s illegal. Otherwise, why haul 50 lbs around on your person? Hell, that’s what UPS is for.
AP: Khat, Man, Doo
March 12th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Good thing we got this dangerous…um…shrub?…pusher off the streets. Lord knows there aren’t better things for the authorities to worry about.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:20 am
I used to buy khat in brooklyn at a yemenese restaurant when I was a kid, it was pretty mild, I think that they have another form of it that is processed and stronger, you keep it in a can like chaw, I never saw that here. That’s probably what “Yemen to its knees”, the raw stuff seemed pretty harmless.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
was big in Israel for awhile too…you could buy it from little kiosks on the street and legally see people snorting it in clubs.