It’s selling itself as a 21st-century playground, a world capital of tourism
offering beach resorts to challenge the Caribbean, Parisian art and Hong
Kong-style shopping in an environment that’s “safer than Singapore”. But
draconian antidrug laws are undermining Dubai’s carefully cultivated
fun-loving image.
Travel there with a bottle of cough mixture and you could catch a cold. Last
week, the emirate’s authorities quietly released Cat Le-Huy, a 31-year-old
tourist who was held for six weeks in the central prison at Al-Wathba after
customs officials found melatonin pills - used to beat jet lag - and a speck
of dirt that the authorities declared was hashish in his luggage.
He was lucky. Last month, the Radio 1 DJ Raymond Bingham - aka Grooverider -
was jailed for four years for possessing 2.16 grams of cannabis. Whether he
will serve the entire sentence depends on the whim of Dubai’s judiciary: the
American record producer Dallas Austin, sentenced to four years when ecstasy
was found in his possession, and Londoner Keith Brown, who received the same
term after 0.003 grams of cannabis (an amount smaller than a pinhead) was
discovered lodged in the tread of his shoes, were recently freed in prison
amnesties.
Five other Britons, along with 19 French nationals and an Italian tourist,
have been imprisoned for weeks or months for the alleged possession of even
microscopic amounts of narcotics, but it’s not just recreational drug users
who are at risk.
“What many travellers may not realise is that they can be deemed to be in
possession of such banned substances if they can be detected in their urine
or bloodstream, or in tiny trace amounts on their person,” says Catherine
Wolthuizen of Fair Trials International. “We even have reports of the
imprisonment of a Swiss man for ‘possession’ of three poppy seeds on his
clothing after he ate a bread roll at Heathrow.
“We have seen a steep increase in such cases over the past 18 months. 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.”
On the list of substances that travellers can be jailed for possessing are
dozens of compounds used in over-the-counter remedies. These include Benylin
children’s coughs and colds formula, which contains dextromethorphan, and
Tixylix children’s cough syrup. Other products on a blacklist of more than
300 substances include the popular antidiarrhoea treatment Lomotil, cough
treatments Coldex and Robitussin, and antidepressants Valium and Prozac.
Possession of any of these without a prescription or an explanatory letter
from your GP could lead to arrest and imprisonment.
And despite the fact that more than 800,000 British tourists will visit Dubai
this year, none of the tour operators contacted by The Sunday Times offers
information about what medicines can be taken into the emirate. “We would
not put detailed banned substances on the website as this would be too much
information to digest,” Kuoni said. “We do, however, refer clients, both in
the brochure and links on the website, to the Foreign Office’s website.”
In its entry on Dubai, the Foreign Office advises: “Some over-the-counter
medicines, such as codeine, are illegal without a doctor’s prescription. In
some cases, you will be allowed to take these medicines in, providing they
are in their original packaging and, in addition to the prescription, you
provide a note from your GP outlining what the medicine is required for.”
The definitive list can be found only as a file buried deep in the
pharmacists’ section of the United Arab Emirates ministry of health’s
website, but is it reasonable to expect families to ask GPs for a letter to
cover a bottle of Tixylix bought in Boots?
“Along with the international community, Dubai has a clear policy regarding
drug trafficking, smuggling and possession, and this is one of the reasons
the emirate has one of the lowest crime rates in the world,” says Ian Scott
of Dubai’s department of tourism. “This, in turn, is one of the many reasons
it is such an attractive holiday destination.”
But Tixylix? “The message is clear,” Scott says. “Don’t take illegal drugs,
and if you’re on medication, bring a prescription to prove it. We have
hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, and the number stopped with
illegal substances is infinitesimal.”
If you are one of that number, you could end up behind bars for weeks, months
or even the mandatory four years, so it’s probably best to leave the Tixylix
at home.
If you play Hard To Get, as Dubai, UAE, Bahrain etc. do then ... OK, have it your way. You're far too good for the likes of us so...I guess we and our cash will have to go to Thailand or Bali instead, where they welcome us common folk.
AJPreston, Brisbane QLD, Australia
The "War on Drugs" has destroyed more lives for nothing than any other effort of a government since the Nazis were in office. How the prohibition of drugs makes the world safer will be a mystery that historians in future centuries will marvel and wonder at. If history proves anything, it is the danger that the "War on Drugs" creates. As Prohibition in the United States proved profoundly, and as the current drugs policy brings home every day, making drugs and their possession illegal empowers criminals who supply them, enriches governments who interdict them, and makes the entire effort a for profit affair. Legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, most drugs would make the world much safer. When is the last time you heard of a gang banger having a shoot out over their Tylenol supply? By making drugs illegal we create an entire new class of vicious criminals seeking the money that prohibition creates. Removing the profit from drugs will remove the destruction the "War on Drugs" creates.
David, Norfolk, Virginia
Why bother going to Dubai in the first place? Seems more trouble than its worth!
Stella , Gaborone, Botswana
There are so many wonderful places in the World. Why go to Dubai and risk 12th Century mentality dressed up as a resort?
Tom , Honolulu,