Middle East: Don't Take Your Doobies to Dubai

[Hudson Boy]

Middle East: Don't Take Your Doobies to Dubai

Travelers headed to Dubai should take a thorough inventory before heading for the airport. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is currently taking an extremely hard line on cannabis offenses. Last week, an Italian visitor was sentenced to years in prison for a microscopic portion of hashish, and this week, a British citizen faces a similar punishment for inadvertently carrying a similarly miniscule amount of hash and marijuana.

On May 31, the Dubai Court of First Instance found a 24-year-old Italian man identified only by the initials "A.D." guilty of smuggling and possessing 1/100th of a gram of hash after he arrived at the airport. The quantity discovered -- 1/2800th of an ounce -- is too small to be usable and so tiny that the fact it was detected at all is remarkable.

A.D. told the court he did not realize the hash was there. "I didn't intend to bring the drugs," he told presiding Judge Abdul Majid Al Nezamy. "I forgot it in the inner pocket of my jacket."

That didn't matter to Judge Al Nezamy, who sentenced the unfortunate Italian to four years in prison to be followed by deportation.

Now a 25-year-old Briton known as "W.H." faces the same fate. He was busted coming in with 0.07 grams of marijuana and "two barely noticeable slivers of hashish," as the Gulf Times put it. Again, the hapless traveler said he had forgotten the drugs were there.

"I wrongly forget them in my pockets," W.H. told the court.

W.H. goes back to court next week. A.D. is already serving his sentence.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/...juana_cannabis

[Gary Sisco]

It's a good idea not to travel with cannabis, period, in my experience.

There's so many excuses now for cops to pull you over or search you here in the States, now, never mind Dubai, I've stopped traveling with it, here, too.

And I keep myself well south of the Quebec border these days, for added insurance, there are so many feds up there now and random roadblocks.

You never know.

Good pal once dropped the last part of a splif in his car and looked and looked but never found it. He got pulled over for speeding one day and the cop spied it for him, just looking in the window.

[groover]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Good pal once dropped the last part of a splif in his car and looked and looked but never found it. He got pulled over for speeding one day and the cop spied it for him, just looking in the window.

Yes, the cops are often better at finding lost stashes than heads are.

And Dubai is one the friendly Muslim countries!

[Gary Sisco]

'S why I've been ranging south of that border, man. I don't travel with it anymore but you never know what a cop will see when there I am thinking I'm clean.

[jesus marion joseph]

I've seen customs running up and down the line of cars waiting to cross back into the US from Quebec with drug sniffing dogs. Meanwhile, our car was loaded down with way more booze and clothing than you're supposed to bring back without paying a tariff (got my sales tax refunded at the duty free shop and spent it all on booze-about $250 worth), but the only thing they questioned was a giftwrapped box of chocolates. I mean, they literally had to dig it out from under all the booze and clothes, but they found it, by God!

[Gary Sisco]

They range south of the border, now, John. You don't have to be at customs to have this experience anymore.

Last time I came through from Canada, the guys asks, "Are you bringing any narcotics back with you?"

Well, duh. Yeah, sure. I have two pounds of heroin in the trunk.

[Noj]

People who think it is justice to imprison a man for possessing a plant are evil, sadistic bastards. Years in jail for a minute fraction of a plant? That's demonic. What a travesty. Genesis 1:12, motherfuckers.

[Gary Sisco]

And also according to the Book and the Rastaman, the herb that grew upon King Solomon's grave.

[Monte Smith]

Don't you have to be on drugs to want to go to Dubai? That's like entrapment.

[Gary Sisco]

A rare agreement with Monte.