by Chris Meyers Almey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 28/97) - A Sir John Franklin high school student will spend his March break and more than a few weekends behind bars for selling marijuana.

And Terrin Chey Bourque, 19, can thank more experienced drug dealers "who don't like people treading on their territory" for the tip to the RCMP which got him arrested, territorial court judge Michel Bourassa said Tuesday.

Crown attorney Sandra Aitken said that on Nov. 25 Bourque was selling the drug in a Centre Square Mall restaurant.

When arrested, Bourque asked the RCMP not to search him because his mother was nearby, but at the police station he produced several grams of marijuana, from inside his pants.

He said he had been selling it at $20 a gram.

"He does not feel he's a criminal," the judge said of Bourque. "Well, he is."

The student was sentenced to 40 days in jail, including straight time during the spring holiday and then on weekends.

He will be looked upon as a criminal if he tries to cross the U.S. border, and may have difficulty getting into Japan, where he wants to teach, the judge added.

Bourassa said Bourque needs to come to youth court on Monday and see all the kids who commit burglary to buy his drugs, thereby flushing their lives down the drain.