NORWICH – A Norwich man who allegedly had about $15,000 worth of marijuana mailed to him from a Texas border town had his bail reduced to $1,000 after his lawyer complained that credit card interest rates were wreaking havoc on his client’s finances.

52-year-old Carl Smith Jr. is charged with second degree possession of marijuana and third degree conspiracy, both felonies. He is also charged with unlawful growing of marijuana and fourth degree possession of a weapon, misdemeanors.

On July 9, the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced they had intercepted 10 pounds of marijuana in a postal package mailed from Donna, Texas, to Smith’s home on County Rt. 34 in the Town of Norwich.

Smith was originally remanded to the Chenango County Correctional Facility on $8,000 bail, which his lawyer, Frederick Meagher Jr., said he paid with a friend’s credit card.

Meagher asked the bail to be excused, explaining that the credit card demanded a $700 surcharge for it to be used in the correctional system and had a interest rate of around 29 percent.

He told Chenango County Supreme Court Judge Kevin M. Dowd that the indirect accumulating costs were unjust and added that his client was a lifelong Norwich resident who had not committed a criminal offense since the 1970s.