the national on drug cases clogging up dubai’s courts:

Most drug offences carry a minimum jail term of four years, while the penalty for smuggling with intent to distribute is 10 years and a fine of Dh50,000 (US$13,600). Trading in narcotics, which includes selling relatively small quantities, can carry a life sentence, or even the death penalty in the most serious cases.

i can understand that the government wants to keep dubai drug free. but (a) it’s a futile goal (not even singapore managed it). and (b) it works against dubai’s other ambitions.

dubai is trying to establish itself as the liberal, creative, finance, media, advertising hub of the region and it would make a lot of sense for the implementation of the drug laws to be re-prioritized. the draconian four year minimum drug sentence can be kept (it would be politically difficult to change- what message would it send?). but the police implementation of the laws can and should be re-focused away from recreational drug use especially of marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine on to the real problems – rife heroin addiction (alarmingly popular with locals) and to a lesser extent the use of dubai as a reexport hub (or more specifically the violent underbelly that accompanies the trade).

i think the problem here is the authorities’ genuine morally based but uninformed fears driving unrealistic policy goals. the courts have better things to do, particularly right now, than to worry about harmless 19 year old club kids, visiting musicians and poppy bagel eating codeine prescribed fiends. plus dubai would be so much more fun!

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