Struggling with Drug Addiction, Man Chooses Prison for Rehabilitation: Sentenced to Six Months

A man struggling with drug addiction has been sentenced to six months in prison after pleading with the court to incarcerate him so he can get some help. Forty-five-year-old Brian Henriquez appeared in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court charged with a single count of possession of controlled drugs. Police busted Henriquez with an amount of crack cocaine so small that the scale at the police station did not register a weight. In court, he pleaded guilty and told the Magistrate that he had been unsuccessful in getting over the addiction on his own. He said he hopes the programs provided by the Kolbe Foundation at the prison will help him realize his goal. For his guilty plea, he was sentenced to three months in prison; however, the average time of a rehabilitation course at the prison is five months. The Magistrate also informed Henriquez that he has an unpaid fine for a previous conviction of possession of a crack pipe. The Magistrate ruled that he would serve out his fine with a three-month prison sentence. Police busted him on Banak Street this morning with the drugs in his pants pocket.