A disbelieving American resident who was shocked at getting a $500 fine for having less than one gram of cannabis was told “bush is expensive”in Bermuda by a magistrate yesterday.

Jack Penick, 60, of Ohio, pleaded guilty to purchasing 0.92 grams of cannabis at 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

Penick told Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves he had been working here for “a few months” and wanted to relax.

“The cab driver told me that he would take me where I could get something for $10,” he continued. “I bought it and the Police came up and got me and they even knew my name.”

When Mr. Greaves levied a $500 fine or 50 days in prison, a protesting Penick said: “For a little like that. What if it was more?”

“Bush is expensive around here,” came the reply from the Barbadian magistrate.

And Mr. Greaves gave the same fine to a 24-year old Devonshire man for possession of cannabis.

Kamal Hanson Trott of Deepdale Road, was given a $500 fine from Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves for having .9 grams of cannabis in a trouser pocket on February 1.

Crown counsel Graveney Bannister said that at around 2.05 a.m., Trott was stopped by Police on Fairylands Road because a rear light on his motorcycle was out.

After a brief talk with Police, he began walking away. When the officers caught up with Trott, they searched him and found a brown twist in his pocket containing the drug.

Trott will have until the end of business today to pay the fine.