mercredi 27 décembre 2017

Laura Plummer - a dubious cause célèbre

As ever, the British media is whipping itself into a frenzy about some poor citizen who has fallen foul of foreign justice. Laura Plummer (33) from Hull was arrested in Egypt with almost 300 capsules of the opioid painkiller Tramadol in her suitcase. She claimed to be bringing them for her Egyptian partner/boyfriend (some sources says he's married to someone else), who apparently didn't know she was doing soem. Tramadol is banned in Egypt, as there is apparently black market for it as a heroin substitute.

Before her trial the possibility of the death sentence was bandied about, as was a maximum 25 years in prison. She was actually senetenced to three years, but has now been transfered to an apparently not-too-cushy jail:

BBC News: Drug-smuggling Laura Plummer transferred to 'bad prison'

The press have been quick to down-play Plummer's crime and/or naive stupidity, objecting that the drugs were worth less than £30, and that she was only "doing someone a favour."

But hang on...

In the UK Tramadol is a prescription-only medicine, but is also Class C under the Misuse of Drugs Act. As such, possession is illegal, and possession with intent to supply even more so. Plummer apparently obtained them from "a friend" in the UK, so if she had been intercepted on her way out of the UK, she would have still been in serious trouble, as the current sentencing guidelines suggest:

"Supplying or offering to supply a controlled drug / Possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply it to another

Class C
Maximum: 14 years’ custody and/or unlimited fine
Offence range: Fine – 8 years’ custody"


via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2lhbyQ0

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