Dubai: Smoke It Here, But Leave It Here (Or Else You Get To Stay For 4 More Years)

Located in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is known across the globe as one of the ultimate tourist getaways, with its luxurious beaches and its reputation for being a shopping haven. But admist all the glam and glitz, there is a strict, zero-tolerance drugs policy - whatever you smoke there, sure as hell better stay there.

Keith Brown, a British council youth development officer and father of three was detained at Dubai International Airport after customs officials found a speck of cannabis on the tread of his shoe. He now faces up to 4 years in an unkempt prison, as a result of the 0.003 gram of cannabis found on the bottom of his shoe - mind you, 0.003 grams is less than a grain of sugar.

Customs authorities are using highly sensitive new equipment to conduct extremely thorough searches on travellers and if they find any amount - no matter how minute - it will be enough to attract a mandatory four-year prison sentence. (Daily Mail)

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I was watching "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" last night (yes, the second one was not as good as the first, but I enjoyed the book and who can deny 2 hours of Colin Firth?), and after mentioning that I had recently purchased the DVD, many people have complained that the scenario in which Bridget gets detained at a Thai prison for [mistakenly] smuggling cocaine seemed very unrealistic. After hearing this in the news today, it just shows that it is a very real scenario where seemingly innocent people get stuck in a foreign country with very little that could be done to help them.