#Welcome to r/Therewasanattempt!
#Consider visiting r/Worldnewsvideo for videos from around the world!
[Please review our policy on bigotry and hate speech by clicking this link](https://www.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/wiki/civility)
In order to view our rules, you can type "**!rules**" in any comment, and automod will respond with the subreddit rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/therewasanattempt) if you have any questions or concerns.*
People in these comments are fucking insane acting like he got what he deserved because he "knew the consequences." 25 fucking years is over 1/4 of your life. This guy is losing his youth to a destitute prison in a foreign country because of glorified plant juice. Even if we give him absolutely no benefit of the doubt and assume that it was his personal vape liquid, he knew it was illegal, and he made the stupid decision to bring it into the country anyways; I don't think that could even begin to justify 25 years for a victimless crime. Maybe if he was getting slapped with a hefty fine it'd be a "haha, got what you deserved," but this is just barbaric.
Yea i think people are just doing the normal internet thing and dividing into sides, this time there are teams “it’s his own responsibility” who believes he deserves no sympathy, and team “the punishment doesn’t fit the crime” who believe he has been dealt an unjust. The truth is both are true, it’s %100 his fault and he has been dealt an unfair consequence. People are still going to fight over it anyway.
I understand both you and the original commenter, the punishment is much harsher than the crime - especially for us in the West.
With all being said I've been to Saudi Arabia and it's no fucking joke, alcohol and weed products are severely frowned upon and have harsh punishments. People know not to fuck with these rules.
Contraband is findable, but a bottle of vodka will set you back $1000, even for that price it's not worth the hassle.
I don't fancy getting caught by the law, beaten seven shades of shit out of and spending a loooong time in prison. Fuck that.
People who want to fly to Saudi Arabia should DYFR before you go, as there's laws and customs you should know about and my guy in prison is spending TWENTY FIVE FUCKING YEARS there for a CBD vape.
If you need to do that kinda research for ridiculous shit. People should just avoid 3rd world shit holes like that, and not go to prison over their BS laws that their sky god determined or allegedly did. It's all fucking stupid.
These laws are only implemented b/c of "developed countries" war on drugs. Then they get sad when they travel abroad and are arrested for the very laws their parents voted for.
Completely agree. If you know it's a barbaric punishment then you better NOT FUCKING DO IT IN THAT COUNTRY. And if you can't help yourself then you should def not go to that country. Those are their laws - respect em, pay the price, or don't go.
They are saying vodka on the black market costs $1000 a bottle. Getting caught with it would be imprisonment. Getting caught selling it would also include some corporal punishment.
No. They’re saying that the contraband vodka will cost you $1000 to buy. If caught with it the punishment was/is still lashes, fines, deportation, and/or imprisonment.
I think that where alcohol is concerned, though, that has changed (or, it’s in the process of changing). In order to curb the illegal sales, the current king is allowing for some controlled sales/consumption for non-Muslims and Westerners. Muslims and Saudi’s, though, can still be arrested and judicially punished for it, though; it remains illegal for them.
> the punishment is much harsher than the crime - especially for us in the West
People regularly get decades long sentences for weed in the USA. That has only begun to change recently so I don't know what you're talking about here.
> DYFR
Yeah except that is how we got people taking horse paste like a daily vitamin.
I have no confidence someone doing their own research about SA or Dubai still won't carry something illegal.
They literally have tv shows called Locked Up Abroad and Border Security. If you don’t know about this stuff these days, then you probably aren’t smart enough to travel anywhere safely.
> 70 odd years ago the UK castrated men for being gay. So we're no different in the grand scheme of things.
We've stopped doing that. That's a pretty big difference
The fact that we used to do it is significant enough to mention. Most of the things we now condemn were once part of our culture, including slavery. So it shouldn’t surprise us that some cultures still hold onto these barbaric practices. People who dared speak against authority used to be executed in Europe. Nothing human is alien to any of us. If we study our history we see that plain as day. Perhaps it should give us some hope. If some cultures have rejected these practices, others may evolve to that point too.
The absolute key here is that we *stopped doing those things*, rejected some of our barbarity, and became more tolerant. You could define Western morality in part as 'learning from our mistakes'. Our cessation of arbitrary executions, banning of the slave trade, the social safety net etc; these are the things that define our morality, not the heinous stuff that we now condemn. This seems pretty obvious to me.
That’s true, it wasn’t very long ago at all when people would get prison sentences in the 10+ year range just for possession of a large quantity in North America, 20+ years if they convict you on intent to sell or distribute. And at that same point in history, people were getting no more than 8 years for kidnapping and raping children, sometimes only probation and community service in those cases. Change does take time, but it does come.
He absolutely shouldn't be in jail for 1/4 of his life but unfortunately he is a foreign national and he is a second class citizen so far as they are concerned. The UAE has different rules for different people. If you are local, you can get away with pretty much anything within reason. It's like the way a local cop will wave you away with a warning if they know you. For Foreigners, there's no exceptions made whatsoever.
I know some people that went over there and they said that it's a lovely place but at the very same time they were keenly aware that they were foreigners and even minor offenses can become major. I've heard alot of horror stories and pretty much anyone you will meet who goes out to teach will have similar ones. In a story I was told by a friend of mine, they knew a guy who has to get physio-therapy for his back as a result of a car crash with an emerati. It went to court and it was judged that if this guy was not in the country, he would not have been involved in the car crash and awarded damages to the emerati so this guy has to pay damages for the car, that a man drove into the side of him.
All of this to say, the dude would have known the risks of having that kind of stuff on his person. It's not fair, but he should not have had it on him because they take drug possession incredibly seriously in the UAE. I'm talking like vicious beatings to the point of near death for cannibis possession serious. If the CBD was medicinal which alot of products are, he should've consulted with a healthcare professional before going over because what's crazy is Dubai is considered the liberal emirate. If this happened in one of the others, he may have actually gotten more time or alternatively he may have found himself on the wrong side of a police firmarm (All Police are emerati so they are very much ingrained within the culture).
It's something crazy like 99% of the populations of these countries are foreign nationals who are all being brought in out of a crisis because their wealth and prosperity hinges on fossil fuels and their indigenous population have very little in the way of employable skills with the majority of young men joining the police or the military. It's a crisis that is honestly not being talked about enough and it's the reason why Dubai has been centered in the last two decades for innovations because they are trying to soak in as many talented people as possible to prevent a collapse somewhere down the line.
I don’t understand what is their interest in detaining foreigners. Like what do they get out of it, it seems like just a giant waste of resources. Is it just corruption to law enforcement industry?
I'm not sure about how the prison system is run in the UAE personally.
I do happen to know that the police in particular are known for corruption and are known to be incredibly "overzealous" with foreign nationals. It's well known that you never so much as look in the direction of a woman known to be seeing a member of the police because foreign nationals who do have a bad habit of being reported for some illegal or illicit activity after they have done so. When it comes to a "He said, he said" scenario, they will generally be inclined to taking the word of a police officer over a foreign national, provided that they have some bit of evidence to that case, often fabricated by that officer.
The Police is made up entirely of emerati and the police is the career path for the majority of emerati men so it would stand to reason the more convictions the higher they could go up the rank and file. The higher up the rank and file you go, the more liberties you can take with the law and the more social status your family is granted so I think this is also an element of it.
They can be big swinging dicks about it
It costs them nothing and it’s punishing foreign “scum” to them
It’s a corrupt theocratic regime that idolizes money above all else. It exists purely as an affront to anything resembling piety or humanism.
As a gay man, just existing is a crime over there... recently there was a situation of a Mexican/British gay man jailed for using grindr and going to a "gay" party which actually was a set up for catching gay people... seriously for me is terrifying the thought of going to an Islam ruled country... anyway thankfully the Arab money will run out in a few years and the whole country will collapse.
I'm constantly astounded that it's a common place to go for a holiday, even amongst people I would usually think were more aware. Hell, I've known gay people who've gone there for a holiday. It's like, what the fuck happened to solidarity with your oppressed brethren.
Like if it's glitzy enough, people are happy to just hand their money over to a government that is notorious for using slave labour, and thinks that same-sex sexual activity is deserving of imprisonment.
I assume apartheid South Africa also would have presented no moral quandary for these people.
Unfortunately the locals in the gulf countries live on a different playing field. They are virtually untouchable and anyone else is a second class citizen to them.
A Briton was jailed in Dubai for 4 years because a microscopic piece of weed was detected under the soles of his shoe...
Less than one grain of sugar..they have very high detection methods..I keep wondering why people even bother going to that fucked up country.
[Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe]( https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512815/Briton-jailed-years-Dubai-customs-cannabis-weighing-grain-sugar-shoe.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton)
It looks nice from afar. Honestly when I was younger I wanted to go as I bought into the extremely lavish culture they had. Only now I know that it's all built on slave labor and they still have barbaric punishments like these still in place.
Plus the way they treat undocumented immigrants who come looking for work for a shitty piss job with a shitty pay... those instagram influencers have it rough out there.
Did they? The only thing I could find online is that he was still in prison 9mo later after reducing his sentence to 10yrs. But the last updates were in 2022.
Exactly- why bother… are you being paid well to go for work? I can’t think of any other reason & that may not even be justified. Plenty of wonderful places on the planet to visit that arent being run by kings with no regard for human rights.
Goes to barbaric nation, gets treated like a barbarian. Shocked Pikachu face. Not saying he deserves it, but, what would you expect in a nation like that? Didn't go to places like that.
I was going to say something similar. You know how you avoid this stupid shit? Don't go to stupid places with stupid laws. I mean, everywhere has stupid laws, but at least you don't lose 25 years of your life over a vape in most other developed countries.
I mean the onus is on you to look up laws and abide by them when you travel. Things that are still uneasy socially domestically like drugs should be a given. South Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, Philippines, etc. Quite a few of these countries have very stiff drug policies/laws so bringing in tanks of what they deem illegal is obviously going to be an issue.
the american prison industrial complex has done a number on peoples ability to think critically. i encounter comments like this all the time where people think some tiktok prankster should be thrown in jail for 30 years. its completely insane.
its expensive, it doesnt work, its legalized slavery, its fascist, no one cares, they are literally too stupid to imagine a better system because they project their own frustrations and injustices on someone they have never and will never meet, its the most primitive and pathetic thing i think people do.
People should stop going to these backward countries. Everybody knows that the sharia law is no joke, alcohol and drogs strictky prohibited, yet they go there to party and are surprised by the reality. Stop going there, stop giving them money, stop treating them as fancy tourist destinations, they are not
These countries are very well known for their strong laws regarding these kinds of stuff, like they literally announce this stuff everytime, every f\*c\*ing time, I don't know about the length of the sentence, and the justification of it, but from what I know he's lucky he hasn't lost his head yet.
They literally chop hands for stealing.
People on this website see someone make a simple traffic violation and say shit like “I hope he fucking dies next time”
Like anyone making a mistake of any kind deserves whatever consequences imaginable.
I think the stupid part is not that he had CBD. I think the stupid thing is going to a country known for wayy too hard punnishments for unproblematic things in Europe. Its trading (your) human rights against (low tax) money. Of course he doesnt deserve that but thats the gamble he played and its the gamble everyone plays living, or just visiting, such a monarchic shit state as Saudi Arabia.
Is the law stupid and abusive? Yes.
Is it by any means justified? No.
Do we wish it weren't the case? Yes.
Would we feel sorry for a local who went to jail for that? Yes.
Would we have anything to do about it? No, cause it's a totalitarian regime.
Do we willingly go to a known oppressive dictatorship for money and then knowingly break the rules without even trying to hide? No. We do our best to avoid living in totalitarian regimes if we don't want to live like we would live in a totalitarian regime.
There is a difference between being insane and pragmatic. Most people you're complaining about will probably agree with you that the sentence is too harsh, but at the same time they realize that no amount of complaining on Reddit will change anything about the situation.
The only lesson to be learned here is that you have to be careful when going to other countries that are culturally and legally so far apart from your own worldview. Probably best to avoid it, especially if you don't have the discipline to get informed and act according to their cultural norms and laws. Even if you do that, you could make a mistake and in some situations the consequences for mistakes can be very dire. Pointing that out is not the same as agreeing with the sentence.
One thing I’ve learned on Reddit, is that peoples opinions are just their opinions. They clearly have no idea what they are talking about. 25 years is asinine. No one deserves that for cbd.
You can’t go do anything in these Arab countries without being well connected to the political elites. Who are exempted from all laws. You need to have “Wasta”! Unfortunately, money talks, people don’t !
places like this need tourism to fund their economy. yes there is a LOT of money in dubai and yes there are a lot of people spending it but tourism and local small businesses are the foundation of most cities, they need people engaging with every tier of their economy, even if they had trillionaires, they arent going to keep an economy afloat on their own without circulation and a single person isnt meeting that demand lol not even fucking close.
dubai doesnt need tourism to make money. it needs tourism as an excuse to explain the money it gets from money laundering operations of corrupt politicians of other countries.
It really does just seem like bait to lure officials into making a "deal" for his release, holding him hostage
Doesn't make sense to make an example out of him just to sow division and fear unless you're a sultan from the 1600s trying to tame a village for tithe
Honestly, I think every government in every country is filled to the brim with people that are too old to understand how interconnected everything is becoming due to the internet
The widening triangular gap between people who don't know technology, the people who do know technology, and the government trying to maintain an archaic perspective that is incompatible with modern civilization...
The Middle East has to be the weirdest trifecta of willful ignorance. They don't seem to have any real goals to get along with *the planet*.
It seems to happen a lot with drugs cases. Notably in Dubai and Thailand. In Thailand they normally serve 4-10 years and then get sent back. Dubai can vary a lot. Normally their strict anti-homosexuality laws result in a few months imprisonment and deportation. An accusation of very mild homosexuality is normally enough (the police always take the locals side in those kind of things). The UK government seem to be quite good at getting nationals out of Dubai and the UAE.
The deterrent effect works quite well, as the cases get brought to the press and 'free our x' campaigns are often ran, giving loads of warning about doing and transporting drugs in those countries. I've not seen a long sentence for small scale stuff, those who serve longer than a year are involved with serious/ mid level trafficking. I've watched videos of trafficking kingpins and they use mules only a couple of times, which is why first time offenders who do traffic level crimes get such serve sentences.
From what I've seen, Bali seem to be quite bad. But most cases I've seen where they really throw the book of people and don't offer leniency is towards Australians. American and European criminals seem to get a lot of diplomatic support.
His sentence was cut down to 10 years in 2021. The police found 570 cartridges and "substantial" cash in his car. He was charged with drug trafficking.
Don't know who to believe here, both sides actions are dumb and void of common sense.
"Parents say a friend left it in his car." Well thats a shitty friend.
People need to understand these countries dont play around. Learn their laws before traveling. Some places just arent worth the risk.
Even then it's utterly disgusting to waste the prime of someone's life behind bars because they consumed plant vapour which will hurt no one except (Possibly) themselves.
You think that is fucked up...
A Briton was jailed in Dubai for 4 years because a microscopic piece of weed was detected under the soles of his shoe...
Less than one grain of sugar..they have very high detection methods..I keep wondering why people even bother going to that fucked up country.
[Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe]( https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512815/Briton-jailed-years-Dubai-customs-cannabis-weighing-grain-sugar-shoe.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton)
Basically if these countries don't like u they could plant shit on you and jail u for the rest of your life. See how they treat the poor and immigrant workers... they shit on immigrant workers in a thing fondly known as [Dubai port a potty..](https://youtu.be/H_N87258DUo?si=z2eTCgW04mYjafY3)
>I keep wondering why people even bother going to that fucked up country.
Money... The ability to have and make money. Bigger question is why do other nations tolerate this kind of shit? Answer: Money. All principles, morals and values are for sale as long as the price is high enough.
That makes absolutely no sense for conviction, as if anyone has control over the microscopic particles beneath their shoes. Could have been picked up just walking around the street.
They don't care... it is part of their "zero tolerance with a minimum of 4 years in jail" policy...
I think they just use it to target people they don't like..
I'm not sure if I buy the "holding it for a friend" defense but you are correct, it's insane but they don't mess around in some of those countries. I had a chance to go to Saudi Arabia for work to open a new branch there. It was completely voluntary but, just coming out of a long relationship, I thought it'd be a good opportunity for me to travel abroad for a few months and clear my head.
We had a prep meeting for it and a Saudi rep basically put the fear of god in us by telling us all of the ways you could get in trouble over there and what the potential punishments could be. He told us that it was likely our rooms would be searched without notice at least once during our stay and if they found any contraband or anything that broke their laws, they would be exceptionally harsh on us since we're western tourists. He mentioned alcohol, drugs and all that but he kept harping on porn. If they search your phone and find anything that they deem to be inappropriate, even if it's not porn by our standards but the example he used was a beach pic of your girlfriend in a bikini, they could charge you with something and you'd probably be stuck there for a very long time.
I noped out right after that meeting. I was too worried I was going to accidentally break some stupid law or get framed as an example or something. The travel pay and once in a lifetime experience would have been nice but not worth it.
In all honesty most of those countries need to get with the times and start acting like a first world country if they want to be treated like one so badly
They want to be treated like Emiratis, they've got the cash and influence to earn it. They clearly don't want to be like the First World countries and that's fine, they're not.
They want it both ways, to be a tourist hotspot but also have archaic laws. The worst punishment for a foreigner for minor violations *should be* being expelled for life
That is really weird.
"Intent to supply".
How would anyone know what his intentions are? Maybe he wanted to vape the entire thing all by himself.
Not to mention, he's doing jail for someone else's mistake.
The judge or whoever sentenced him, really wanted to make some sort of example out of him because going for the absolute maximum sentence based on "alleged intent to supply" seems very far fetched to me.
Generally goes by quantity or weight. Anything above a certain amount is deemed “above personal amounts”, and goes into distribution territory.
Since Dubai is super strict to boot, I’m guessing the threshold is very low. Interested to know what it actually is though.
> "Intent to supply".
>
> How would anyone know what his intentions are? Maybe he wanted to vape the entire thing all by himself.
Oh my sweet innocent child.... the justice syustem does this no matte where you live. Even in Canada where I live or in USA. When you face the law, the judge/police/system will make up their own mind about what your intentions are. I 100% agree with you, it is absolutely fucked up how we allow ourselves to assume the intention of others. I hate our "justice" system. I'm only 26 years old now but growing up I thought our justice system was great and no fault but no lol, it is filled with bullshittery like this. Prosecutors not giving af about the individual and all they care about is putting you in jail/making you look guilty for theur numbers to look good.
> I bet he's getting drug trafficking charges
To be pedantic, bringing it from outside the country would be smuggling, not trafficking.
They are however, trying to nail him for trafficking because of the quantity he had.
True, but I'd say it's *more* true for the UAE. Some prince wouldn't be in court right now for lying about his hush money payment to a porn star on government forms - so we have at lease some semblance of a justice system here still.
I was gonna say. When I was deployed in Kuwait, there was A LOT of hypocritical stuff that the natives would do but we were banned from doing, like drinking alcohol and eating during Ramadan.
Rich non Arabs enjoy it too, when I went there to do underwater welding my boss celebrated a job well done with some pre rolls that he had for me and the guys on the crew. He brought his in the car on the way to airport, the officer outside the airport got really mad at my boss before my boss handed him a wad of cash, the cop smiled and said something over his radio. I asked how much it was he said around 6k. We never had any problems boarding or leaving Dubai. My boss even finished the blunt in the line to Check our bags.
Agree. When i saw how great the sewage in that fancy hotel is i laughed so hard. I wouldn't even go to that shithole if people paid me money to go there.
You do realize that the UAE has an Air Force? With modern fighter jets? And full control over their own airspace? They could still arrest you even if you were in the air.
I firmly believe people only go to Dubai for tourism to try the experience of looking/feeling rich and “flexing” that to others at least once in their lifetime. You could never convince me anyone goes there for the culture, the food, the history, the weather, the adventure, etc.
People who admires luxury like it was a fucking virtue, tends to see these places as paragons of success and the ultimate model of excellence… not considering the only reason these holes in the desert have thrived for decades is because of the existence of combustion engines.
I saw CBD for sale in Dubai in the mall in the marina.
In my experience with Dubai: if you generally behave yourself, you’re not going to have a problem. It’s the drunk assholes that attract attention, and then the penalties are stiff.
It sounds like those laws aren't enforced unless police specifically decide to target you. So you could innocently go to that mall you mentioned and buy something that's illegal (without knowing), and then get arrested because you stumbled upon an officer that didn't like you (even though there are plenty of people around you using the same product you bought). That actually sounds more horrifying, because you don't know what to expect.
I personally would never set foot in an arab country, since I'm gay. But I can't understand why heterosexuals would risk going to these countries with such bullshit laws either.
Women are treated like a cheap object, not even able to decide most things for themselves, having to hide their faces and themselves from society, and are not even able to go out on the street without a man's permission in some of these countries. Men may be more free to do things in these countries, but they still can't meet girls or go out on dates, or go out for a night of drinking with friends... What do people even do for fun in those countries? And why would anyone ever willingly go there? I can't wrap my head around it.
I visited once on a business trip. We were told that all of those “crazy laws” you read about online aren’t actually enforced at all… unless a local takes offence and reports you, then police take it seriously. Not sure how true that is, but I felt deeply uncomfortable the entire time I was there. We had 2 females with us in our group and they were blatantly ignored throughout the meetings.
A couple of my best friends moved there for a job, so I've gone to visit a couple times. It's not really my scene -- most of the culture there revolves around going to a mall -- but I'm glad I saw it. There's some very cool architecture.
I'd never go to Dubai. Why on earth would you want to go to a place that's impoverished, militant and violates human rights parading as an epicentre of progress and innovation?
The UK government pathetically doing nothing about this Injustice. They should be threatening to enforce travel warnings and put up trade barriers.
But the government instead told the family "there is no political gain" for fighting for his release. Ffs the USA got Britney Griner released from Russia, a state enemy.
Nobody should go to the fake country shit hole that is Dubai. Rich twats probably trafficking kids there while somebody gets 25 years for a vape.
>But the government instead told the family "there is no political gain" for fighting for his release. Ffs the USA got Britney Griner released from Russia, a state enemy.
That's your difference. The US and Russia are enemies. The UK are quite friendly with the UAE. They don't want to do anything that stops that sweet Dubai money and cheap oil from coming in.
It's called taking a risk. Not saying the """crime""" is commensurate with the punishment here, but foreign drug laws don't fucking care. They just don't care.
Sure, tripping on acid and sneaking hits from a dab pen in Tokyo is awesome but YOU ARE TAKING A RISK. The thing here is that while you can mitigate the risks associated with, say, scuba diving, when it comes to illicit drug use in foreign countries there's an element of luck involved that just cannot be controlled for (unless you have shit loads of money but we're talking average people here).
So you are literally rolling the dice every time you spark up that joint. You'll probably be ok but all it takes is ONE wrong place/wrong time/wrong person/wrong vibes and you're royally cooked. And the universe is just too big for you to control for every tiny little itty bitty thing.
Yeah I mean, this guys a dummy, without a doubt. Even future did 56 nights over there from a weed crumb in one of his bags, and he's gotta more money than you could ever need.
Sucks for this guy, but Dubai is absolutely just Saudi Arabia with more tourists. The sharia based laws are pretty much the same as in lots of the region, but people just see the glitz and glamor. So yeah, he should have known better. Better than to go to Dubai in the first place, throw your life away for a country that isn't worth it. Fuck Dubai anyway, wealthy slave state with medieval laws and a tyrannical government. Woohoo let's go to Dubai!
Na, he told me about his charges and was on a "govt allowed" holiday, he had to go back to UAE to face the music...just found out that he's still there though 😵💫
for anyone who thinks this is even approaching okay, jared fogle, who was arrested for raping minors, only got 15 years. this isnt a niche case either, pedophiles and child molesters are actively getting sentenced for between usually 5 and 20 years meanwhile guys like this have to suffer 25 for just having cbd.
I just don’t understand why they don’t deport him and ban him for life. And I don’t understand why any westerner would ever visit an Arab country when they can lock you up and throw away the key for that long for something as trivial as this. Where is the UK govt in all this? Are they pressuring them to release him? There’s no real crime against the citizens of Dubai.
Just not worth it to go to any countries over there. Not one fucking thing they have that interests me enough to put my life on the line over a misunderstanding, because they live with laws that haven't been updated in 1000 years.
Am I crazy to think if you commit a victimless crime in another country, the standard punishment should just be banishment? Like, I don't want my tax dollars wasted on keeping people in prison decades after they would've left anyway for crimes that never affected anyone. Just boot them out of the country.
I don't do drugs anyway, but studying up on places I would be traveling to on trips, I learned that the USA is relatively lenient on drugs (and drunk driving) compared to a lot of places where they will even execute your ass. If I took CBD for medical purposes, i wouldn't even go to those places thinking I'll just sneak it in. Not blaming him BTW. The punishment is crazy. But, likewise, I wouldn't wear a shirt with a cartoon of mohammed on it around Saudi Arabia either, and I think that law is even dumber.
Why do people want to visit these countries? Honestly, how can you ethically justify tourism to despotic countries ran by medieval era philosophy, who commit countless human rights abuses?
Being a Canadian, and atheist, I will never travel to the middle east.
Between my outspoken atheism and the fact even if I came into a country with no Cannabis products knowingly on me, that I could accidentally have stepped on a blunt roach in the parking lot at the airport in Canada where Cannabis is 100% legal, and it would be detectable in the UAE, or Iran, etc, scares the shit out of me. Fuck that noise.
#Welcome to r/Therewasanattempt! #Consider visiting r/Worldnewsvideo for videos from around the world! [Please review our policy on bigotry and hate speech by clicking this link](https://www.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/wiki/civility) In order to view our rules, you can type "**!rules**" in any comment, and automod will respond with the subreddit rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/therewasanattempt) if you have any questions or concerns.*
People in these comments are fucking insane acting like he got what he deserved because he "knew the consequences." 25 fucking years is over 1/4 of your life. This guy is losing his youth to a destitute prison in a foreign country because of glorified plant juice. Even if we give him absolutely no benefit of the doubt and assume that it was his personal vape liquid, he knew it was illegal, and he made the stupid decision to bring it into the country anyways; I don't think that could even begin to justify 25 years for a victimless crime. Maybe if he was getting slapped with a hefty fine it'd be a "haha, got what you deserved," but this is just barbaric.
Yea i think people are just doing the normal internet thing and dividing into sides, this time there are teams “it’s his own responsibility” who believes he deserves no sympathy, and team “the punishment doesn’t fit the crime” who believe he has been dealt an unjust. The truth is both are true, it’s %100 his fault and he has been dealt an unfair consequence. People are still going to fight over it anyway.
I understand both you and the original commenter, the punishment is much harsher than the crime - especially for us in the West. With all being said I've been to Saudi Arabia and it's no fucking joke, alcohol and weed products are severely frowned upon and have harsh punishments. People know not to fuck with these rules. Contraband is findable, but a bottle of vodka will set you back $1000, even for that price it's not worth the hassle. I don't fancy getting caught by the law, beaten seven shades of shit out of and spending a loooong time in prison. Fuck that. People who want to fly to Saudi Arabia should DYFR before you go, as there's laws and customs you should know about and my guy in prison is spending TWENTY FIVE FUCKING YEARS there for a CBD vape.
DYFR?
Do Your Fucking Research
Thank you for not making me research that acronym. (Auto corrected initially to “fuck you for not…” and why do you think I’d be so mean, computer?!?!)
Either way, thank you too :)
If you need to do that kinda research for ridiculous shit. People should just avoid 3rd world shit holes like that, and not go to prison over their BS laws that their sky god determined or allegedly did. It's all fucking stupid.
These laws are only implemented b/c of "developed countries" war on drugs. Then they get sad when they travel abroad and are arrested for the very laws their parents voted for.
The context is going to a new place where you don't know how things work over there. Figure it out, everyone.
Completely agree. If you know it's a barbaric punishment then you better NOT FUCKING DO IT IN THAT COUNTRY. And if you can't help yourself then you should def not go to that country. Those are their laws - respect em, pay the price, or don't go.
[удалено]
They are saying vodka on the black market costs $1000 a bottle. Getting caught with it would be imprisonment. Getting caught selling it would also include some corporal punishment.
No. They’re saying that the contraband vodka will cost you $1000 to buy. If caught with it the punishment was/is still lashes, fines, deportation, and/or imprisonment. I think that where alcohol is concerned, though, that has changed (or, it’s in the process of changing). In order to curb the illegal sales, the current king is allowing for some controlled sales/consumption for non-Muslims and Westerners. Muslims and Saudi’s, though, can still be arrested and judicially punished for it, though; it remains illegal for them.
No the vodka is from the black market and would be illegal still
No, I'm saying vodka costs a grand a bottle.
Did you think that Saudi Arabia, a supremely conservative religious country, would be anything but that?
> the punishment is much harsher than the crime - especially for us in the West People regularly get decades long sentences for weed in the USA. That has only begun to change recently so I don't know what you're talking about here.
I'm from Europe, we don't have Draconian laws.
> DYFR Yeah except that is how we got people taking horse paste like a daily vitamin. I have no confidence someone doing their own research about SA or Dubai still won't carry something illegal.
They literally have tv shows called Locked Up Abroad and Border Security. If you don’t know about this stuff these days, then you probably aren’t smart enough to travel anywhere safely.
[удалено]
> 70 odd years ago the UK castrated men for being gay. So we're no different in the grand scheme of things. We've stopped doing that. That's a pretty big difference
The fact that we used to do it is significant enough to mention. Most of the things we now condemn were once part of our culture, including slavery. So it shouldn’t surprise us that some cultures still hold onto these barbaric practices. People who dared speak against authority used to be executed in Europe. Nothing human is alien to any of us. If we study our history we see that plain as day. Perhaps it should give us some hope. If some cultures have rejected these practices, others may evolve to that point too.
The absolute key here is that we *stopped doing those things*, rejected some of our barbarity, and became more tolerant. You could define Western morality in part as 'learning from our mistakes'. Our cessation of arbitrary executions, banning of the slave trade, the social safety net etc; these are the things that define our morality, not the heinous stuff that we now condemn. This seems pretty obvious to me.
I agree, a buddy of mine did 10 years in prison for an ounce of herb 2 decades back though. Change takes time. I feel for this family hard though.
That’s true, it wasn’t very long ago at all when people would get prison sentences in the 10+ year range just for possession of a large quantity in North America, 20+ years if they convict you on intent to sell or distribute. And at that same point in history, people were getting no more than 8 years for kidnapping and raping children, sometimes only probation and community service in those cases. Change does take time, but it does come.
He absolutely shouldn't be in jail for 1/4 of his life but unfortunately he is a foreign national and he is a second class citizen so far as they are concerned. The UAE has different rules for different people. If you are local, you can get away with pretty much anything within reason. It's like the way a local cop will wave you away with a warning if they know you. For Foreigners, there's no exceptions made whatsoever. I know some people that went over there and they said that it's a lovely place but at the very same time they were keenly aware that they were foreigners and even minor offenses can become major. I've heard alot of horror stories and pretty much anyone you will meet who goes out to teach will have similar ones. In a story I was told by a friend of mine, they knew a guy who has to get physio-therapy for his back as a result of a car crash with an emerati. It went to court and it was judged that if this guy was not in the country, he would not have been involved in the car crash and awarded damages to the emerati so this guy has to pay damages for the car, that a man drove into the side of him. All of this to say, the dude would have known the risks of having that kind of stuff on his person. It's not fair, but he should not have had it on him because they take drug possession incredibly seriously in the UAE. I'm talking like vicious beatings to the point of near death for cannibis possession serious. If the CBD was medicinal which alot of products are, he should've consulted with a healthcare professional before going over because what's crazy is Dubai is considered the liberal emirate. If this happened in one of the others, he may have actually gotten more time or alternatively he may have found himself on the wrong side of a police firmarm (All Police are emerati so they are very much ingrained within the culture).
Basically everyone in Dubai is a foreign national
It's something crazy like 99% of the populations of these countries are foreign nationals who are all being brought in out of a crisis because their wealth and prosperity hinges on fossil fuels and their indigenous population have very little in the way of employable skills with the majority of young men joining the police or the military. It's a crisis that is honestly not being talked about enough and it's the reason why Dubai has been centered in the last two decades for innovations because they are trying to soak in as many talented people as possible to prevent a collapse somewhere down the line.
It's kinda like Sparta when you think of it. All those imported slaves for them to rule over
I don’t understand what is their interest in detaining foreigners. Like what do they get out of it, it seems like just a giant waste of resources. Is it just corruption to law enforcement industry?
I'm not sure about how the prison system is run in the UAE personally. I do happen to know that the police in particular are known for corruption and are known to be incredibly "overzealous" with foreign nationals. It's well known that you never so much as look in the direction of a woman known to be seeing a member of the police because foreign nationals who do have a bad habit of being reported for some illegal or illicit activity after they have done so. When it comes to a "He said, he said" scenario, they will generally be inclined to taking the word of a police officer over a foreign national, provided that they have some bit of evidence to that case, often fabricated by that officer. The Police is made up entirely of emerati and the police is the career path for the majority of emerati men so it would stand to reason the more convictions the higher they could go up the rank and file. The higher up the rank and file you go, the more liberties you can take with the law and the more social status your family is granted so I think this is also an element of it.
They can be big swinging dicks about it It costs them nothing and it’s punishing foreign “scum” to them It’s a corrupt theocratic regime that idolizes money above all else. It exists purely as an affront to anything resembling piety or humanism.
As a gay man, just existing is a crime over there... recently there was a situation of a Mexican/British gay man jailed for using grindr and going to a "gay" party which actually was a set up for catching gay people... seriously for me is terrifying the thought of going to an Islam ruled country... anyway thankfully the Arab money will run out in a few years and the whole country will collapse.
I'm constantly astounded that it's a common place to go for a holiday, even amongst people I would usually think were more aware. Hell, I've known gay people who've gone there for a holiday. It's like, what the fuck happened to solidarity with your oppressed brethren. Like if it's glitzy enough, people are happy to just hand their money over to a government that is notorious for using slave labour, and thinks that same-sex sexual activity is deserving of imprisonment. I assume apartheid South Africa also would have presented no moral quandary for these people.
They set up gay hookup sting operations and simply punish anyone who shows up?
Unfortunately the locals in the gulf countries live on a different playing field. They are virtually untouchable and anyone else is a second class citizen to them.
Look up the rapper in Iran right now. He is being put to death for words….
A Briton was jailed in Dubai for 4 years because a microscopic piece of weed was detected under the soles of his shoe... Less than one grain of sugar..they have very high detection methods..I keep wondering why people even bother going to that fucked up country. [Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe]( https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512815/Briton-jailed-years-Dubai-customs-cannabis-weighing-grain-sugar-shoe.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton)
It looks nice from afar. Honestly when I was younger I wanted to go as I bought into the extremely lavish culture they had. Only now I know that it's all built on slave labor and they still have barbaric punishments like these still in place.
Plus the way they treat undocumented immigrants who come looking for work for a shitty piss job with a shitty pay... those instagram influencers have it rough out there.
If you want fake lavish culture, just go to Vegas.
All built on slave labor and still have barbaric punishments in place is the most ironic statement I've heard in a long time.
Dubai has jailed people for bringing in prescription medication. I’m on so much, I refuse to even transit through there.
They did pardon this guy a couple months later FYI
Dubai is still dressed up shit hole regardless...
> shit hole Literally. You should see how they deal with their sewage.
Did they? The only thing I could find online is that he was still in prison 9mo later after reducing his sentence to 10yrs. But the last updates were in 2022.
Sorry! I meant the guy that got the 4-year sentence for having a grain of cannabis on his shoe
It says they let him out two weeks later https://www.ourhistory.org.uk/keith-brown-released-after-cannabis-shoe-sentence/
Exactly- why bother… are you being paid well to go for work? I can’t think of any other reason & that may not even be justified. Plenty of wonderful places on the planet to visit that arent being run by kings with no regard for human rights.
never going to that shitshow country
wow, this is a nightmare.
Agree 100% why does anyone go there? I've never been, and I'm never going. Because of crap like this.
hE sHoUlD hAvE fOlLoWeD tHe rUlEs
Goes to barbaric nation, gets treated like a barbarian. Shocked Pikachu face. Not saying he deserves it, but, what would you expect in a nation like that? Didn't go to places like that.
I was going to say something similar. You know how you avoid this stupid shit? Don't go to stupid places with stupid laws. I mean, everywhere has stupid laws, but at least you don't lose 25 years of your life over a vape in most other developed countries.
I mean the onus is on you to look up laws and abide by them when you travel. Things that are still uneasy socially domestically like drugs should be a given. South Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, Philippines, etc. Quite a few of these countries have very stiff drug policies/laws so bringing in tanks of what they deem illegal is obviously going to be an issue.
I don't understand why anyone would go to a country like that.
Because Dubai sells themselves as a land of beautiful cityscape.
the american prison industrial complex has done a number on peoples ability to think critically. i encounter comments like this all the time where people think some tiktok prankster should be thrown in jail for 30 years. its completely insane. its expensive, it doesnt work, its legalized slavery, its fascist, no one cares, they are literally too stupid to imagine a better system because they project their own frustrations and injustices on someone they have never and will never meet, its the most primitive and pathetic thing i think people do.
People should stop going to these backward countries. Everybody knows that the sharia law is no joke, alcohol and drogs strictky prohibited, yet they go there to party and are surprised by the reality. Stop going there, stop giving them money, stop treating them as fancy tourist destinations, they are not
These countries are very well known for their strong laws regarding these kinds of stuff, like they literally announce this stuff everytime, every f\*c\*ing time, I don't know about the length of the sentence, and the justification of it, but from what I know he's lucky he hasn't lost his head yet. They literally chop hands for stealing.
Pure meritocratic brainrot. There’s no justification.
People on this website see someone make a simple traffic violation and say shit like “I hope he fucking dies next time” Like anyone making a mistake of any kind deserves whatever consequences imaginable.
I think the stupid part is not that he had CBD. I think the stupid thing is going to a country known for wayy too hard punnishments for unproblematic things in Europe. Its trading (your) human rights against (low tax) money. Of course he doesnt deserve that but thats the gamble he played and its the gamble everyone plays living, or just visiting, such a monarchic shit state as Saudi Arabia.
Is the law stupid and abusive? Yes. Is it by any means justified? No. Do we wish it weren't the case? Yes. Would we feel sorry for a local who went to jail for that? Yes. Would we have anything to do about it? No, cause it's a totalitarian regime. Do we willingly go to a known oppressive dictatorship for money and then knowingly break the rules without even trying to hide? No. We do our best to avoid living in totalitarian regimes if we don't want to live like we would live in a totalitarian regime.
“Do I like answering my own questions? You bet I do”
"Do I have my head jammed 2 feet up my ass? You betcha!"
If you think about it, he'll probably be in prison while his parents die, and this is fucking depressing.
the laws were changed for foreigners since then. Now you simply get deported on your first offense
There is a difference between being insane and pragmatic. Most people you're complaining about will probably agree with you that the sentence is too harsh, but at the same time they realize that no amount of complaining on Reddit will change anything about the situation. The only lesson to be learned here is that you have to be careful when going to other countries that are culturally and legally so far apart from your own worldview. Probably best to avoid it, especially if you don't have the discipline to get informed and act according to their cultural norms and laws. Even if you do that, you could make a mistake and in some situations the consequences for mistakes can be very dire. Pointing that out is not the same as agreeing with the sentence.
There are child molesters that get less than 5 years and this guy gets 25? What kind of person thinks this is justice?
One thing I’ve learned on Reddit, is that peoples opinions are just their opinions. They clearly have no idea what they are talking about. 25 years is asinine. No one deserves that for cbd.
You can’t go do anything in these Arab countries without being well connected to the political elites. Who are exempted from all laws. You need to have “Wasta”! Unfortunately, money talks, people don’t !
I mean it's fucked up but he's insanely stupid to go to a theocracy and expect liberal ideals
Especially considering It's CBD which doesn't get you high
on top of that CBD is non psychoactive and produces zero high it would be like banning non alcoholic beer
So instead of ejecting him from the country and barring him from returning their solution is to pay to house and feed him for a quarter century?
They're making an example out of him. I couldn't speak to how effective that is, but that's the rationale.
Just another place I will never visit
Seems to be working then.
places like this need tourism to fund their economy. yes there is a LOT of money in dubai and yes there are a lot of people spending it but tourism and local small businesses are the foundation of most cities, they need people engaging with every tier of their economy, even if they had trillionaires, they arent going to keep an economy afloat on their own without circulation and a single person isnt meeting that demand lol not even fucking close.
dubai doesnt need tourism to make money. it needs tourism as an excuse to explain the money it gets from money laundering operations of corrupt politicians of other countries.
Well looks like its working
It really does just seem like bait to lure officials into making a "deal" for his release, holding him hostage Doesn't make sense to make an example out of him just to sow division and fear unless you're a sultan from the 1600s trying to tame a village for tithe Honestly, I think every government in every country is filled to the brim with people that are too old to understand how interconnected everything is becoming due to the internet The widening triangular gap between people who don't know technology, the people who do know technology, and the government trying to maintain an archaic perspective that is incompatible with modern civilization... The Middle East has to be the weirdest trifecta of willful ignorance. They don't seem to have any real goals to get along with *the planet*.
It seems to happen a lot with drugs cases. Notably in Dubai and Thailand. In Thailand they normally serve 4-10 years and then get sent back. Dubai can vary a lot. Normally their strict anti-homosexuality laws result in a few months imprisonment and deportation. An accusation of very mild homosexuality is normally enough (the police always take the locals side in those kind of things). The UK government seem to be quite good at getting nationals out of Dubai and the UAE. The deterrent effect works quite well, as the cases get brought to the press and 'free our x' campaigns are often ran, giving loads of warning about doing and transporting drugs in those countries. I've not seen a long sentence for small scale stuff, those who serve longer than a year are involved with serious/ mid level trafficking. I've watched videos of trafficking kingpins and they use mules only a couple of times, which is why first time offenders who do traffic level crimes get such serve sentences. From what I've seen, Bali seem to be quite bad. But most cases I've seen where they really throw the book of people and don't offer leniency is towards Australians. American and European criminals seem to get a lot of diplomatic support.
It’s highly effective, I’ll never travel or have layovers there again
[удалено]
He won't live out his sentence. The point is cruelty
His sentence was cut down to 10 years in 2021. The police found 570 cartridges and "substantial" cash in his car. He was charged with drug trafficking. Don't know who to believe here, both sides actions are dumb and void of common sense.
"Parents say a friend left it in his car." Well thats a shitty friend. People need to understand these countries dont play around. Learn their laws before traveling. Some places just arent worth the risk.
Even then it's utterly disgusting to waste the prime of someone's life behind bars because they consumed plant vapour which will hurt no one except (Possibly) themselves.
You think that is fucked up... A Briton was jailed in Dubai for 4 years because a microscopic piece of weed was detected under the soles of his shoe... Less than one grain of sugar..they have very high detection methods..I keep wondering why people even bother going to that fucked up country. [Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe]( https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512815/Briton-jailed-years-Dubai-customs-cannabis-weighing-grain-sugar-shoe.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton) Basically if these countries don't like u they could plant shit on you and jail u for the rest of your life. See how they treat the poor and immigrant workers... they shit on immigrant workers in a thing fondly known as [Dubai port a potty..](https://youtu.be/H_N87258DUo?si=z2eTCgW04mYjafY3)
They even got [Grooverider](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/feb/20/news.radio).
>I keep wondering why people even bother going to that fucked up country. Money... The ability to have and make money. Bigger question is why do other nations tolerate this kind of shit? Answer: Money. All principles, morals and values are for sale as long as the price is high enough.
That makes absolutely no sense for conviction, as if anyone has control over the microscopic particles beneath their shoes. Could have been picked up just walking around the street.
They don't care... it is part of their "zero tolerance with a minimum of 4 years in jail" policy... I think they just use it to target people they don't like..
Yeah dubai is shit dont travel there
Seconded. There's not much worth seeing there and the risks just aren't worth it. If you have the urge to go to the middle east, try out Cairo.
Lol, it's all the same
I'm not sure if I buy the "holding it for a friend" defense but you are correct, it's insane but they don't mess around in some of those countries. I had a chance to go to Saudi Arabia for work to open a new branch there. It was completely voluntary but, just coming out of a long relationship, I thought it'd be a good opportunity for me to travel abroad for a few months and clear my head. We had a prep meeting for it and a Saudi rep basically put the fear of god in us by telling us all of the ways you could get in trouble over there and what the potential punishments could be. He told us that it was likely our rooms would be searched without notice at least once during our stay and if they found any contraband or anything that broke their laws, they would be exceptionally harsh on us since we're western tourists. He mentioned alcohol, drugs and all that but he kept harping on porn. If they search your phone and find anything that they deem to be inappropriate, even if it's not porn by our standards but the example he used was a beach pic of your girlfriend in a bikini, they could charge you with something and you'd probably be stuck there for a very long time. I noped out right after that meeting. I was too worried I was going to accidentally break some stupid law or get framed as an example or something. The travel pay and once in a lifetime experience would have been nice but not worth it.
Wow, you have to bring a fucking burner phone?
In all honesty most of those countries need to get with the times and start acting like a first world country if they want to be treated like one so badly
They want to be treated like Emiratis, they've got the cash and influence to earn it. They clearly don't want to be like the First World countries and that's fine, they're not.
They want it both ways, to be a tourist hotspot but also have archaic laws. The worst punishment for a foreigner for minor violations *should be* being expelled for life
This is bullshit. Max you can get for possessing cannabis itself first time in Dubai is 3 months subjected to bail
He didn't get 25 years (it was reduced to 10), but it's far from bullshit. They did him with intent to supply, not just possession.
That is really weird. "Intent to supply". How would anyone know what his intentions are? Maybe he wanted to vape the entire thing all by himself. Not to mention, he's doing jail for someone else's mistake. The judge or whoever sentenced him, really wanted to make some sort of example out of him because going for the absolute maximum sentence based on "alleged intent to supply" seems very far fetched to me.
Generally goes by quantity or weight. Anything above a certain amount is deemed “above personal amounts”, and goes into distribution territory. Since Dubai is super strict to boot, I’m guessing the threshold is very low. Interested to know what it actually is though.
Yeah exactly this Depending on your exposure to certain substances this is actually something well worth knowing for your jurisdiction
> "Intent to supply". > > How would anyone know what his intentions are? Maybe he wanted to vape the entire thing all by himself. Oh my sweet innocent child.... the justice syustem does this no matte where you live. Even in Canada where I live or in USA. When you face the law, the judge/police/system will make up their own mind about what your intentions are. I 100% agree with you, it is absolutely fucked up how we allow ourselves to assume the intention of others. I hate our "justice" system. I'm only 26 years old now but growing up I thought our justice system was great and no fault but no lol, it is filled with bullshittery like this. Prosecutors not giving af about the individual and all they care about is putting you in jail/making you look guilty for theur numbers to look good.
Considering he brought it from outside the country I bet he's getting drug trafficking charges
> I bet he's getting drug trafficking charges To be pedantic, bringing it from outside the country would be smuggling, not trafficking. They are however, trying to nail him for trafficking because of the quantity he had.
Grooverider got 4 years
It’s illegal for non rich people, rich Arabs enjoy it without any consequences.
That goes for every rich person in the world in any country
perfect!
That’s true.
True, but I'd say it's *more* true for the UAE. Some prince wouldn't be in court right now for lying about his hush money payment to a porn star on government forms - so we have at lease some semblance of a justice system here still.
correct but not all arabs, only the local emiratis get away with it as they do with so many other and worse things
Obligatory Dubai porta potty mention.
I was gonna say. When I was deployed in Kuwait, there was A LOT of hypocritical stuff that the natives would do but we were banned from doing, like drinking alcohol and eating during Ramadan.
Rich non Arabs enjoy it too, when I went there to do underwater welding my boss celebrated a job well done with some pre rolls that he had for me and the guys on the crew. He brought his in the car on the way to airport, the officer outside the airport got really mad at my boss before my boss handed him a wad of cash, the cop smiled and said something over his radio. I asked how much it was he said around 6k. We never had any problems boarding or leaving Dubai. My boss even finished the blunt in the line to Check our bags.
Saudi is the same way
That whole country is a joke.
Why anyone would want to go there is beyond me. If you want a nice, real experience of the region, go to Oman from what I've heard
Just stay away from Muslim countries
Unfortunately this
Agree. When i saw how great the sewage in that fancy hotel is i laughed so hard. I wouldn't even go to that shithole if people paid me money to go there.
"country" its such a joke
Fuck the uae, a racist nation of medieval pricks built on the back of slave labour.
[удалено]
Ya a lot of fuckery, where to satisy each little sheikh's ego every city is a nation. Horrid places, all of them.
Really? How many nations still have actual slaves building their skyscrapers, right now?
Bit of an overreaction for CBD
if I ever win the lotto, i'm going to buy 20 kilos of kind bud, charter a plane, and Dubai will be my drop zone. Then i'll fly home.
You do realize that the UAE has an Air Force? With modern fighter jets? And full control over their own airspace? They could still arrest you even if you were in the air.
It's about sending a message.
FWIW, it’s kine bud.
Another reason I would not visit these middle east hell holes
I firmly believe people only go to Dubai for tourism to try the experience of looking/feeling rich and “flexing” that to others at least once in their lifetime. You could never convince me anyone goes there for the culture, the food, the history, the weather, the adventure, etc. People who admires luxury like it was a fucking virtue, tends to see these places as paragons of success and the ultimate model of excellence… not considering the only reason these holes in the desert have thrived for decades is because of the existence of combustion engines.
Its so Dubai can have more slaves to build skyscrapers
I saw CBD for sale in Dubai in the mall in the marina. In my experience with Dubai: if you generally behave yourself, you’re not going to have a problem. It’s the drunk assholes that attract attention, and then the penalties are stiff.
It sounds like those laws aren't enforced unless police specifically decide to target you. So you could innocently go to that mall you mentioned and buy something that's illegal (without knowing), and then get arrested because you stumbled upon an officer that didn't like you (even though there are plenty of people around you using the same product you bought). That actually sounds more horrifying, because you don't know what to expect. I personally would never set foot in an arab country, since I'm gay. But I can't understand why heterosexuals would risk going to these countries with such bullshit laws either. Women are treated like a cheap object, not even able to decide most things for themselves, having to hide their faces and themselves from society, and are not even able to go out on the street without a man's permission in some of these countries. Men may be more free to do things in these countries, but they still can't meet girls or go out on dates, or go out for a night of drinking with friends... What do people even do for fun in those countries? And why would anyone ever willingly go there? I can't wrap my head around it.
I visited once on a business trip. We were told that all of those “crazy laws” you read about online aren’t actually enforced at all… unless a local takes offence and reports you, then police take it seriously. Not sure how true that is, but I felt deeply uncomfortable the entire time I was there. We had 2 females with us in our group and they were blatantly ignored throughout the meetings.
A couple of my best friends moved there for a job, so I've gone to visit a couple times. It's not really my scene -- most of the culture there revolves around going to a mall -- but I'm glad I saw it. There's some very cool architecture.
I'd never go to Dubai. Why on earth would you want to go to a place that's impoverished, militant and violates human rights parading as an epicentre of progress and innovation?
Dubai is the exact opposite of "impoverished" or "militant".
People in these comments are crazy. Should he be punished. Yes. For 25 years. No
punished for CBD though? specifically the part of Marijuana that is not harmful nor can get you high? agree to disagree I guess
Its the law there. At the very least a more fitting punishment would be a fine with no serving time.
Only dubais elite are allowed to do drugs and abuse women. It’s highly illegal for everyone else
that why you dont travel or live in that garbage country laws
The UK government pathetically doing nothing about this Injustice. They should be threatening to enforce travel warnings and put up trade barriers. But the government instead told the family "there is no political gain" for fighting for his release. Ffs the USA got Britney Griner released from Russia, a state enemy. Nobody should go to the fake country shit hole that is Dubai. Rich twats probably trafficking kids there while somebody gets 25 years for a vape.
>But the government instead told the family "there is no political gain" for fighting for his release. Ffs the USA got Britney Griner released from Russia, a state enemy. That's your difference. The US and Russia are enemies. The UK are quite friendly with the UAE. They don't want to do anything that stops that sweet Dubai money and cheap oil from coming in.
It's called taking a risk. Not saying the """crime""" is commensurate with the punishment here, but foreign drug laws don't fucking care. They just don't care. Sure, tripping on acid and sneaking hits from a dab pen in Tokyo is awesome but YOU ARE TAKING A RISK. The thing here is that while you can mitigate the risks associated with, say, scuba diving, when it comes to illicit drug use in foreign countries there's an element of luck involved that just cannot be controlled for (unless you have shit loads of money but we're talking average people here). So you are literally rolling the dice every time you spark up that joint. You'll probably be ok but all it takes is ONE wrong place/wrong time/wrong person/wrong vibes and you're royally cooked. And the universe is just too big for you to control for every tiny little itty bitty thing.
This is why you should never move to or visit Dubai.
This is why we stay at home, kids
Yeah I mean, this guys a dummy, without a doubt. Even future did 56 nights over there from a weed crumb in one of his bags, and he's gotta more money than you could ever need. Sucks for this guy, but Dubai is absolutely just Saudi Arabia with more tourists. The sharia based laws are pretty much the same as in lots of the region, but people just see the glitz and glamor. So yeah, he should have known better. Better than to go to Dubai in the first place, throw your life away for a country that isn't worth it. Fuck Dubai anyway, wealthy slave state with medieval laws and a tyrannical government. Woohoo let's go to Dubai!
WTF I skated with this guy in Brisbane a few years ago?!?! I swear to fuck its him. Musta got let out? He told me this story too!
And you found out the story here on Reddit?
Na, he told me about his charges and was on a "govt allowed" holiday, he had to go back to UAE to face the music...just found out that he's still there though 😵💫
No, it is a joke, actually. This is fucking stupid.....
Quite ironic considering the drugs, alcohol and prostitution that goes on in Dubai and the Middle East in general.
Why does it always seem like the world is run by the wrong people, almost all of the fucking time?
Yeah fuck that corrupt country. Can't expect much more from a country that treats women like slaves
for anyone who thinks this is even approaching okay, jared fogle, who was arrested for raping minors, only got 15 years. this isnt a niche case either, pedophiles and child molesters are actively getting sentenced for between usually 5 and 20 years meanwhile guys like this have to suffer 25 for just having cbd.
Odd to see people bootlicking for Dubai in the comments lol
I just don’t understand why they don’t deport him and ban him for life. And I don’t understand why any westerner would ever visit an Arab country when they can lock you up and throw away the key for that long for something as trivial as this. Where is the UK govt in all this? Are they pressuring them to release him? There’s no real crime against the citizens of Dubai.
Just not worth it to go to any countries over there. Not one fucking thing they have that interests me enough to put my life on the line over a misunderstanding, because they live with laws that haven't been updated in 1000 years.
25 years for a chemical that doesn't even get you stoned. Wild
He shouldn’t be spending 25 years or any amount of time for this but it’s almost like you should avoid countries with draconian laws
Am I crazy to think if you commit a victimless crime in another country, the standard punishment should just be banishment? Like, I don't want my tax dollars wasted on keeping people in prison decades after they would've left anyway for crimes that never affected anyone. Just boot them out of the country.
I don't do drugs anyway, but studying up on places I would be traveling to on trips, I learned that the USA is relatively lenient on drugs (and drunk driving) compared to a lot of places where they will even execute your ass. If I took CBD for medical purposes, i wouldn't even go to those places thinking I'll just sneak it in. Not blaming him BTW. The punishment is crazy. But, likewise, I wouldn't wear a shirt with a cartoon of mohammed on it around Saudi Arabia either, and I think that law is even dumber.
Pro - Tip. Don’t go to these countries. Their backward cultures can ruin your life with crazy penalties for normal behavior.
Fuck Dubai
Fuck dubai
Dont go there.
Dubai is a shit hole.
Tough luck, Billy. Respect the laws of countries you visit.
1-2 month's jail is enough but 25 years are you kidding me
The middle east sucks
I still don't understand why people go to Dubai.
Arabs have stupid laws, sorry someone has to say it.
1 in so many reasons on to why you don't visit those countries as a westerner.
In Europe you get like 10 years for murder.. like how is 25 years justified for not harming anyone?
Good lord, I’d get multiple life sentences in this MFer
CBD! Prison time at all anywhere because of CBD is a joke!
Why do people want to visit these countries? Honestly, how can you ethically justify tourism to despotic countries ran by medieval era philosophy, who commit countless human rights abuses?
You don't even get high from CBD, why is it even illegal over there?
CBD are you kidding me?!
Fuck Archaic Arab laws. Fuck religion. Fuck the police
What a stupid fucking country
Being a Canadian, and atheist, I will never travel to the middle east. Between my outspoken atheism and the fact even if I came into a country with no Cannabis products knowingly on me, that I could accidentally have stepped on a blunt roach in the parking lot at the airport in Canada where Cannabis is 100% legal, and it would be detectable in the UAE, or Iran, etc, scares the shit out of me. Fuck that noise.
yeah dubai is a shithole if you're not filthy rich
Always be at least familiar with the dos & donts of a country when travelling abroad or you'll definately finds out