We do not know how much money Norbert Newell has at his disposal, or how much he can raise in a relatively short space of time. We do know, though, that if he cannot come up with the tidy sum of $1.77 million in short order he will be going to prison for two and half years.

The STAR reported on Saturday that Newell was fined on Tuesday in the Spanish Town RM Court for 59 bootleg DVD's he was found selling.

It does, of course, sound like an enormously heavy penalty for pirated movies, but we must take a few things into consideration.

One is that he was held in the now Sagicor (formerly LOJ) Shopping Centre in Spanish Town, St Catherine, a very popular spot for students in transit between their homes and the various institutions they attend. Hence, the youngsters would be exposed to whatever material Newell had on offer. In addition, the arresting officer carried along someone knowledgeable about pharmaceuticals to confirm that Newell was also selling sexual aids, some known as Chiney brush, Spanish Fly and Stone, which should have been sold from a designated area.

Again, these items would have been accessible to students.

So while Norwell's sentencing will not dramatically change the often chaotic state of affairs in Jamaica, it is a symbol of the power of the law to effect change.

We can only hope that there will be a concerted effort to continue enforcement in the future.