# 4 years in jail for a literally microscopic amount of weed? Only in Dubai... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 9, 2008, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914 "2008-02-09T09:01:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/1 "2008-02-09T09:01:01Z")
[Un. Fucking. Believable.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/7235467.stm) > [@](#): > > Lee Brown said that his brother Keith, 43, of Smethwick, West Midlands, had suffered a “grave injustice”. > > Customs officials found 0.003g of the drug - an amount that is invisible to the naked eye and weighs less than a grain of sugar - in his shoe. > > The youth development officer was sentenced to four years in prison. > [@](#): > > The list of banned substances in the UAE includes many products which are available over-the-counter and off-the-shelf in the UK. From [a different article on the case](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=512815&in_page_id=1770&ito=1490): > [@](#): > > One man has even been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport. > [@](#): > > A 25-year-old Briton who was found with a similar speck in one pocket as he arrived on holiday has been awaiting sentence since November. > > Meanwhile a Big Brother TV executive has so far been held without charge for five days after being arrested for possessing the health supplement melatonin. These are _mandatory_ four-year sentences doled out for possession of any amount of drugs that their new ultra-sensitive sensors can detect. Who cares if they can’t physically see it, right? :rolleyes: The fact that you can spend years in prison because you accidentally happened to step on a joint that someone else tossed in the street and got a speck of pot invisible to the naked eye caught in the tread your shoe defies any sort of logical comprehension. I keep wanting to think that this is some sort of joke, but amazingly it is not. That anyone on the face of this planet could consider this to be a good idea is infinitely depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/2 "2008-02-09T09:24:37Z")
Did you read the comments after the article in the second link? This is one of many similar > [@](#): > > Good on these authorities for actually enforcing the law of the land, I have no pity for the suspects and criminals whom they have caught, some ignorant, some stupid and some simply brazen. It seems that suspect “profiling” is alive, well and working effectively in some parts of the world. > > It’s a shame that our own establishment is so weak by comparison. > > - Perfectly Fair, Edinburgh, Scotland :eek: Who can look at this situation and not only think “Awesome!” but also have enough brain cells to actually post a comment? So sad. unless those happy comments are a big whoosh to me? Please tell me they are ☹ ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/3 "2008-02-09T09:24:43Z")
I’m always surprised at how they would think westerners would even bother smuggling drugs when any real addict knows you can simply buy your drug of choice from any pharmacy in Dubai. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/4 "2008-02-09T09:46:25Z")
[QUOTE=Pullet] Did you read the comments after the article in the second link? [/QUOTE] Jesus Christ! :eek: Why did you have to point that out? And why did I have to go and read the comments? Those people are either too stupid to breathe, or they honestly think that they’d deserve every second of prison time that they themselves would receive for committing the unthinkable crime of stepping in the wrong spot in the street on the way to the airport. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/5 "2008-02-09T10:00:06Z")
Just when I thought we were making progress as a species… ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/6 "2008-02-09T10:14:04Z")
Not an apples to apples comparison by any means, but it made me think of [this](http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2008/02/07/news/community/4aaa02_growop.txt) article that I was reading today. A guy was busted and sentenced to 16 months and and had to forfeit $65,000 for a large indoor growing operation (230 plants), after he had paid a tax bill with $600 cash that smelled so strongly of weed that the County employee who processed the payment contacted the police. Anyone wanna break out the abacus and calculate the proportional comparison of jail time to volume of weed in both cases? ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/7 "2008-02-09T11:23:33Z")
[QUOTE=neutron star] Jesus Christ! :eek: Why did you have to point that out? And why did I have to go and read the comments? Those people are either too stupid to breathe, or they honestly think that they’d deserve every second of prison time that they themselves would receive for committing the unthinkable crime of stepping in the wrong spot in the street on the way to the airport. [/QUOTE] I think someone at the Daily Mail is having a joke at its readers’ expense. The ‘selection of comments’ in the link is not representative of the more-or-less-random sample I read when I clicked the view all link. Some of the comments even seem quite reasonable, considering this is the Daily Mail. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/8 "2008-02-09T11:38:43Z")
[QUOTE=ticker] I think someone at the Daily Mail is having a joke at its readers’ expense. The ‘selection of comments’ in the link is not representative of the more-or-less-random sample I read when I clicked the view all link. Some of the comments even seem quite reasonable, considering this is the Daily Mail. [/QUOTE] Granted, most of the comments are sane. The fact that there is even one comment like the one I posted above is enough to make my head explode, though. How anyone could not just applaud such an Orwellian government, but actually advocate duplication, is beyond mind-boggling. Orwell wrote his stuff to be hyperbole, to an extent. But they made it real. And they get accolades. 😕☹ ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/9 "2008-02-09T11:46:38Z")
more funness > [@](#): > > Britain could do with investing in the same high tech equipment to be used at our airports. > > - Owldshep, England > > Sounds good to me - build more prisons and import these drug prevention controls here please. Many lives would be saved. > > - Robert El-Cid., Hull, East Yorks > > Sounds like they have got it right in Dubai. > > - Chris Downing, Yorkshire > > A good reason for not smoking or getting involved with cannabis. > > - Bruce, Cambs. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/10 "2008-02-09T12:09:13Z")
[QUOTE=ticker] I think someone at the Daily Mail is having a joke at its readers’ expense. The ‘selection of comments’ in the link is not representative of the more-or-less-random sample I read when I clicked the view all link. Some of the comments even seem quite reasonable, considering this is the Daily Mail. [/QUOTE] Oh, I had read through all of the comments when I posted that, and that’s why I was so shocked. Roughly a quarter of the responders were more-or-less supportive of this shockingly extreme idiocy. The next time somebody tells me that Brits are more intelligent than Americans, I think I know where to point them. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/11 "2008-02-09T13:35:37Z")
[QUOTE=Pullet] Just when I thought we were making progress as a species… [/QUOTE] Really? What on earth gave you that idea? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/12 "2008-02-09T13:42:54Z")
[QUOTE=Dervorin] … What on earth gave you that idea? [/QUOTE] **Pullet** isn’t [human](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullet)? :eek: 😃 CMC +fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/13 "2008-02-09T14:21:37Z")
Actually, it sounds **less like** an _insane anti-drug_ policy, & **more like** an _insane anti-godless Western Infidel_ policy. Do not assume that laws are fairly enforced by reasonable standards in the Middle East. 2 to 1, the Muslims traveling with this man never got a second glance, only Westerners. Of course, the reverse is true in the West. Could this be a reprisal, on that basis? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/14 "2008-02-09T14:59:43Z")
Every once in while, I think about smoking weed. How many years do I get for that? ---
**Author:** ![hybrid\_dogfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@hybrid\_dogfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hybrid_dogfish)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/15 "2008-02-09T15:26:30Z")
[QUOTE=Pullet] Did you read the comments after the article in the second link? This is one of many similar :eek: Who can look at this situation and not only think “Awesome!” but also have enough brain cells to actually post a comment? So sad. unless those happy comments are a big whoosh to me? Please tell me they are ☹ [/QUOTE] The second I read your comment, without even looking at where the link went, I thought “Must be the Daily Mail”. Nice to see that they don’t disappoint (except if you want a sensible debate). **neutron star** , the Daily Mail is well known as the newspaper of choice for the more, erm, how to put this…right wing bigoted idiot section of British society. Fortunately, when someone starts a sentence with “According to the Mail” the more sensible of us know to shut off and not bother trying to talk sense to them, saves alot of effort all round. 😃 \*edited due to spelling ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/16 "2008-02-09T15:28:18Z")
[QUOTE=El\_Kabong] Every once in while, I think about smoking weed. How many years do I get for that? [/QUOTE] You’d probably get four just for your screen name. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/17 "2008-02-09T16:14:29Z")
Wasn’t there some case here in the US some time ago where they vacuumed the inside of some guy’s jacket to gather marijuana residue and convicted him for it? I might have heard about this in the 80’s but if it happened it could have been any time before that. This ring a bell with anybody? ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/18 "2008-02-09T18:12:05Z")
[QUOTE=ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies] Anyone wanna break out the abacus and calculate the proportional comparison of jail time to volume of weed in both cases? [/QUOTE] On a pro rata basis the guy in Dubai should get something above 3 million years for possession of 5lb of grass. Of course, that’s before any remission. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/19 "2008-02-09T18:28:11Z")
The story is pretty incomplete, how did this guy get pulled aside? Dubai had less security than either the US or Delhi when I was there this summer. They seemed far more interested in getting me and my credit cards in the city than cracking down on one of the palest guys in the country. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914/20 "2008-02-09T18:46:54Z")
Same, only different: [Canadian anti-drug guy jailed for possession of drugs](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070619.wdubainew0619/BNStory/International/home) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-years-in-jail-for-a-literally-microscopic-amount-of-weed-only-in-dubai/436914.md?page=2)