A Taiwanese rapper has been released on bail after police patrolling Taipei allegedly found cannabis in his possession, although he said it was for medicinal use.
Police identified the suspect as Chien Pei-lun (簡培倫), 32, saying that they found three pouches of cannabis on him at Taipei Bus Station on Thursday afternoon.
Using the stage name “MC La,” Chien gained prominence with performances in support of the 2014 Sunflower movement and was dubbed the “Sunflower rapper” by fans and Taiwanese media.
The police said that during a patrol, they thought Chien was acting strangely and stopped him for questioning, adding that they asked to search his backpack, where they found one pouch of cannabis, before recovering two more pouches from a storage locker used by Chien.
The suspect was cooperative throughout the process, and the substance in the pouches was dried cannabis weighing 2.4g, said Koo Chin-hsiang (辜欽祥), chief of the city’s Jiancheng Police Station.
The police detained the suspect under suspicion of breaching the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例) and transferred him to the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office for judicial follow-up.
Chien was released yesterday after posting NT$10,000 bail.
Witnesses reported that as Chien was being taken away by the police, he said: “Cannabis use is not a crime — decriminalize it,” and continued to argue that cannabis should be legally permitted for medicinal treatment.
Chien told police that he suffers from a mental disorder for which most prescription drugs have not been effective, police said.
“Taking cannabis was the only effective medicine that worked for me. It helped calm my nerves and relieve the symptoms of my condition. So cannabis can be used as a medication, and it should not be classified as a narcotic drug,” Chien was quoted by police as saying.
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