Not a drug mule, but just a Regular Joe who gets caught with a joint in his pocket. Do they get taken away from the airport? Do they eventually get to go on their flight? Are they detained in the airport for a pre-determined amount of time?
Thanks,
Brad
This is a WAG, and of course it all depends on the particular jurisdiction, but with regards to countries where these drugs are illegal, but their possession is a minor offense, I suppose the pot is confiscated, the airport authorities make a record of the incident and notify the police of it, and then they’ll allow Regular Joe to board his plane. Of course he’ll get trouble with criminal prosecutors later on.
I’m also sure that there’s a difference if this happens to Regular Joe on the return flight from a country where he’s been spending holidays (and not likely to ever return to), or if it happens on a domestic flight in the country where Regular Joe lives.
A couple of years ago a friend who took frequent trips to Jamaica told a story about a woman from England being busted for possession of Marijuana upon arrival in Jamaica (talk about the whole “Coals to Newcastle” thing :rolleyes: ). He said she was fined $1,200.
Purely an anecdote:
I knew a guy back in the 90’s who worked the X-ray at an airport. He’d pick out people who he thought might be carrying pot by some internal profiling system of his own, and search their bags. Whenever he found pot, he’d pull the person over, and quietly tell them, “You have 2 choices here. I can call the police, you’ll get arrested, pay a fine, miss your flight, and wind up with a police record. Or you can throw this (handing them the pot) in that trashcan there, and go get on your flight.” Everyone of course threw the pot away. After the person walked off to their gate (all the gates were out of sight of security), this guy would take the pot out of the trashcan and take it home with him.
Some guys I trekked with in Nepal tried to get on a flight from Pokarah to Kathmandu with some pot and they were still in jail when we left the country 2 weeks later.
In 13+ years of experience as a prosecutor and now as a magistrate with Cleveland-area courts, I’ve never heard of anyone being prosecuted for trying to take pot on a flight at our local airport. FWIW, I suspect when it’s a small amount it’s just confiscated and the travelers are sent on their way with a warning.
Unofficially, I like muldoonthief’s story. 
I should have specified, I’m specifically interested in US domestic travel situations (but I guess all other info is wecome, as well)
Interesting related anecdote follows.
A group of my friends were flying from Pittsburgh to some airport in Florida to attend a blues festival three years ago. Before leaving, everyone talked about how paranoid they would be trying to find pot for sale in a distant city. They all agreed that carrying it on themselves was “safer”.
When they arrived in Florida, they were all complaining about how eager they were to remove the bags taped to their inner/upper thighs. That was when one of them said, “hey waitaminute, how did you guys carry?”. Yep, he was carrying his “internally” and assumed everyone else was as well. Eeeeew.
To this day, no one will let him live it down. It is common for people to say, “hey, could you hold this for me. . .nevermind”. 
Do not ever try that in Asia or the Middle East.
Would this fall under federal jurisdiction because it happened at an airport? If you get caight with a handgun it’s a federal offense.
Amen to that.
I lived in Singapore and Jakarta for a while. On the immigration forms that we had to fill out before landing, in big red letters, were the words
DEATH FOR TRAFFICKING IN DRUGS
While I was there, two college kids were busted for pot. They were tourists. They were stupid and bought a couple of joints. Their trial lasted two days; it was open and shut, there was no doubt that they were guilty. The US Consul tried to broker a deal for expulsion from the country, but it didn’t fly, and they were executed.
Those people mean it over there. They do NOT fuck around.
Good point. I suspect they’d prosecute federally for big amounts but “cut 'em loose with a warning” for small-timers. From either personal experience or seeing it in the local media, I’m aware of no pot busts at Cleveland-Hopkings Intl. Airport. Ever.
I’ve posted a couple of threads about a former co-worker who got caught going into Singapore from Malaysia about seven years ago with two ounces of pot.
He just got out last year.
Actually, he was lucky he was so stupid. He thought he’d bought nearly a pound, but the dealer ripped him off and gave him mostly worthless (and non-illegal) garbage, which luckily the authorities didn’t count when figuring out the charges against him.
Any more details on that? I can’t find anything on two American kids executed for pot in Singapore, but then my google-fu is admittedly not mighty.
Just missed the edit window.
As far as I can tell, only two Westerners have been executed for drug offences in Singapore.
Johannes van Damme, a Dutch businessman, and Van Tuong Nguyen, a Vietnamese-Australian.
OK, that’s only a list of notable past executions, but if two American kids hanged for pot isn’t notable I don’t know what is.
Sorry, just noted you mentioned Jakarta too, but I can’t find a record of any American students executed for pot there either.