Hi to all my friends and family.  As you may have heard, like most of us, the past year has been very difficult for me.  My wife Kerima and our one year old son Keanu have been apart from me for a year due to the travel restrictions imposed by the Hong Kong government due to Covid.  On top of losing my family, I also lost most of my regular work as a teacher.  The stress was immense but towards the end of December I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as I acquired a full-time job and would finally be able to apply for Kerima and Keanu's Visas to finally get them here.  

Then suddenly I had the very unfortunate luck of being stop and searched on the street by the Hong Kong police.  At the time I had been using Cannabis regularly not only to relieve stress but also socially with friends as an alternative to drinking which I am not a huge fan of.  That day I was carrying a small metal vaporizer with 0.09 g of Cannabis inside, a very small amount for personal use.  I was brought to jail and released 8 hours later after being grilled and pushed into not only lying about my address(because I live too far away for the lazy police to search my actual place) but into a confession after being assured I would only have to pay a very small fine.  On March 12th, after months of waiting and hearing from multiple people not to worry, I had my day in court.  I was assigned a duty lawyer who didn't give my case much care and instead of a fine, I was placed under a probation officer's supervision to determine what my future fate would be.  After being tested multiple times (which I will surely fail since I carelessly didn't stop using cannabis until I was put under probation) and agreeing to attend drug counselling, Narcotics Anonymous, home visits, community service and more random drug tests, I will have one more day in court where the judge can either decide to put me on a one year probation period where I will have to continue all the above mentioned or send me to mandatory rehab, the latter of which would surely cause me to lose my job and put me in a situation where I wouldn't be able to survive or support my family here in Hong Kong or overseas.  So after many suggestions I am somewhat reluctantly asking for help so I can get proper legal representation for my next court date.  I have found a well-known and highly recommended lawyer who has accepted my case for 15,000HKD which is around 2000usd. Hopefully with the lawyer I can avoid having to be sent to a two week rehab and keep my job.  

At this time I am committed to getting clean and staying that way.  I am looking at this moment in my life as a new beginning and a fresh start.   I have already committed to going thru with the counselling, I am attending NA meetings and I am volunteering in a kitchen to prepare food for the homeless.  These are all positive things that can only have a positive impact on my life.  Hopefully with the help of the lawyer, I can come out of this without too many negative impacts on my already difficult situation.  Due to the circumstances of my arrest I know that this situation is my own fault and I don't expect much sympathy, but regardless I need to ask for help in case anyone is willing to give it.  Any support is greatly and humbly appreciated.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.  I hope you and your family are safe and staying well during these difficult times.

Sincerely,

Joey Angelakis