Man sentenced to 4 years in Dubai for .003g of marijuana

[RevenanT]

Evening Standard, London, 09/02/08.

 

Father of 3 jailed for miniscule amount of pot

 

 

A father-of-three who was found with a microscopic speck of cannabis stuck to the bottom of one of his shoes has been sentenced to four years in a Dubai prison.

 

One man has even been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport. Painkiller codeine is also banned.

[Frazz]

I would have thought scientific analaysis requires a sample larger than 0.03g to be able to positively identify substances with any degree of accuracy .. apparently Dubai authorities derive some kind of twisted enjoyment from imprisoning visitors to their country.

Really what beats me is why anyone would want to tour a sandy desert ruled by Muslim dictators anyways

 

[RevenanT]

It's certainly never going to make my 'Places to go' list.

[WantDaChronic]

well the united arab emerates has just surpassed bali as my number 1 place never to visit. if you read the full story you find out you can get arrested for possession of drugs even if you have none on you so long as they are in you urine its a piss test, just because it comes up positive doesnt mean you should spend 4 years in prison

[jayoner]

absolutely shocking stuff

[67Special]

Fuck Dubai

 

Here's evidence against a drug free city...

 

 

 

it was supposed to look like this...

 

That was 12 mths ago, so it's probably finished by now

[styx]

I'm not sure what shocked me more, the madness of this story subject, or many hurraying comments in Daily Mail like this one:

That's the way to deal with the drug problem in the UK.

 

- Casey, Crawley West Sussex

Crazy planet

[urefriend]

That's the Daily Mail for you .. People should be locked up for 4 years for reading that rag!

[pipeman]

Customs officers aren't very bright people in my experience. The No.1 lesson I learned is don't do anything or wear anything that makes you stand out from the crowd. Did you see the psychedelic outfit that guy was wearing when he got busted? I have no doubt if he was wearing standard clothes he would have passed through with minimal scrutiny, but because of his colourful getup he was pulled aside for close inspection.

 

So wear conservative style clothes, keep your hair nice n neat, don't wear sunnies, spend a few $$ on some respectable looking luggage and you will find customs will wave you through a lot more easily that the guy with dreadlocks and a backpack.

 

I was interrogated 4 times coming into Australia once, and on the fourth time I said to the guy i didn't understand why I was being singled out and asked, jokingly, is it the sunnies? He looked at me and said, "well, um yes it is". I said OK fine I'll take them off... Its stupid shit, I mean a drug dealer with any brains is not gonna wear sunnies to make himself stand out from the crowd is he? Anyway, thats the simple level that a lot of custom officers operate on. Not drawing attention to yourself in the first place is 99% of the game.

 

Not that I ever smuggle anything of course, but I can't be sure that microscopic scans of my clothes wouldn't reveal something. and yeah knowing this I'm definitely never going through dubai which is a shame cause its a good stop off point if you're coming back to Aus from Europe.

[Bubble Bags Australia]

I wouldn't call that outfit psychadelic, the guy is a Rastafarian so that was probably a traditional or patriotic outfit for him.