Judge Melba Marsh of the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court was in for a shock when on Wednesday, upon being informed the court was willing to help him, 19-year-old Damaine Mitchell, asked for help that counted.
Damaine, who’s arrested for selling marijuana, told the court, “I know this is probably not the right question to ask (but) can I get a little time at least (to) get one more joint in?” The Cincinnati.com reports the astonished judge commenting, “That’s the first time I’ve ever had a request for marijuana while they’re serving time in jail.”
Damaine’s crime in Ohio carries a sentence of more than a year in prison. The judge offered him a treatment program that would avoid his being sent to jail and also remove the crime from his record. And he could get that in exchange of promising to give up smoking pot.
Damaine told the judge, “That’s going to be hard for me to do, to be honest with you … I like smoking weed. I have been smoking weed since I was like 10 years old.”
But the judge wouldn’t give up on him and started to ask him to set a deadline providing one alternative after another, from Easter to Valentine’s Day, and Christmas to Thanksgiving. Damaine, who said he didn’t want to quit at the beginning, admitted at the end, “If I put my mind to it I can (but) I won’t want to.”
With the court still asking him for a deadline on giving up pot, and finding it hard to make up his mind, Damaine made his candid request to have a joint, because it was a decision that needed serious contemplation. However, the judge didn’t see things from his perspective and informed him with equal candor “No. You can’t have one more joint for old time’s sake.”
The judge ordered Damaine to be returned to court on Monday.