TOURISTS SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN A DUBAI JAIL
FOR CARRYING SPECKS OF DRUGS

Two Britons visiting Dubai have each been jailed for four years for
possessing tiny amounts of soft drugs for personal use.

The harsh sentences highlight the zero-tolerance policy to all drugs
enforced by the authorities in the United Arab Emirates, a federation
of seven Gulf states. A mere speck of a drug forgotten in a trouser
pocket can bring a four-year jail term.

One of the Britons, aged 22 and identified only by his initials, PP,
was arrested at Dubai airport on June 7 when 0.11 grams (0.04oz) of
hashish were found in his bag, according to local media reports. The
amount would barely be enough to make one joint.

The other Briton, aged 27 and identified as HV, was arrested on June
22 at the same airport after arriving on a flight from Afghanistan. He
was found with 1.18 grams of hashish.

"They are receiving consular assistance," a spokeswoman for the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.

Prison conditions are described by former inmates as spartan at best.
Prisoners receive three meals a day, are able to exercise and have
access to reading materials. Conditions are clean but accommodation
can be cramped, with six to a room.

A million British tourists a year visit Dubai, which has become the
region's tourism, property, finance and high-tech trading hub. Another
100,000 British nationals are resident in the emirate, which appears
to be a haven of liberalism in the Middle East.

But expatriate Britons are well aware that drugs are one perceived
Western social ill that the UAE authorities will not tolerate, even if
others - such as prostitution - have taken root. Four years'
imprisonment is a common sentence for drugs possession, and
trafficking carries the death penalty.

British visitors to the UAE appear less well informed of the perils of
carrying even microscopic amounts of soft drugs. Travel advice on the
Foreign Office website makes quite clear that there are severe
penalties for those who flout the UAE's drug laws. Since January last
year possession of even trace amounts of illegal drugs has resulted in
four-year jail terms for foreigners in transit through Dubai.

"The presence of drugs in the body is counted as possession," the
Foreign Office cautions. In other words, travellers can be jailed
even if they have no drugs on them: a trace in the blood-stream of a
drug consumed before entering the UAE is enough to secure a jail term.

Such was the fate of an 18-year-old Egyptian boy who smoked a
cigarette containing hashish a day before he flew to the UAE this
year. Traces of the drug were found in his blood and he was jailed in
April by a court in the emirate of Fujairah for four years.

Those who dabble with recreational drugs are also advised to ensure
that no particles are left on their clothes or luggage before
travelling. A British man aged 25 was jailed for four years in June
for possession of 0.07 grams of marijuana - a little over
two-thousandths of an ounce - which was found in his trouser pocket,
local press reports said. Also in his pocket were what a newspaper
termed "two hardly noticeable slivers of hashish".

The man, identified as WH, confessed to possessing the tiny amounts of
drugs, but denied that he had intended to use them. "I mistakenly
forgot them in my pockets," he said.

Painkillers that are available with a doctor's prescription or are
even available over the counter in Europe or the United States can be
illegal in Dubai.

The US State Department lists these types of medicines - mainly those
containing codeine and similar narcotic-like ingredients - on its
website about Dubai, and advises Americans not to bring in such pills
without a doctor's prescription.

The emirate's penal code is based both on Islamic Sharia and British
civil law.