THE Malaysian Marijuana Education Movement founder has escaped the death sentence, in the country’s first case of a reduced charge involving medical pot.

The Star reports that Mohd Zaireen Zainal, whose charge was reduced from trafficking to possession, broke down in tears after Chief Judge of Malaya Zaharah Ibrahim ordered him to serve a 15-year jail term from the date of arrest on August 27, 2014.

He was also sentenced to 10 strokes of the rotan.

Zaireen pleaded guilty at the Federal Court yesterday to the lesser charge of possession involving 1.1kg of cannabis.

The panel of judges, which also included Ramly Ali, Rohana Yusuf, Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Idrus Harun, was unanimous in its ruling.

Zaireen’s counsel had written to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, requesting a review of the trafficking charge on the grounds that there were no such elements in the case.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar told the court that the prosecution agreed to reduce the trafficking charge, under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, and substitute it with Section 6 of the same law.

Police, during a raid on Zaireen’s home in Batu Pahat, found bottles of cannabis oil and a compressed lump of marijuana. The Muar High Court sentenced him to death for trafficking in 2014, and the decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

“He was running a small therapy centre from home, giving out appropriate amounts of cannabis oil to those who had lost hope of getting their diseases cured by prescribed medicine,” Zaireen’s lawyer, Kitson Foong, said during mitigation, as quoted in the report.

“He only helped alleviate the pain of patients in his village.

“He was helping people suffering from a variety of ailments where Western medicine had no effect… He left it to the recipients to decide whether to donate… if they felt the oil helped them.” – April 19, 2019.