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The Forum > Article Comments > Australians overseas - and doing drugs > Comments

Australians overseas - and doing drugs : Comments

By Mirko Bagaric, published 23/9/2005

Mirko Bagaric argues Australian citizens who commit drug offences overseas deserve our help.

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The bottom line is to be aware of the laws of the land you're visiting (and shrink wrap your luggage)...If I was aware of a country's death penalty for selling cannabis, I wouldn't try and smuggle it in, and who knows what drives a person to challenge something like that. HOWEVER, I don't believe cannabis warrants death penatly, and if that were the case, I would expect Australian Gov't intervention...PLUS I am very intrigued by ColRouge's faith in the balinese judicial system. It implies it's infallibile, which I don't believe is the case for any law court in any country. We have all heard of cases of someone doing the time for something they didn't do, even in Australia.
Posted by lisamaree, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 2:37:37 PM
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Look only Schapelle knows what happened, the Indonesian Justice system probably knows as much as I do and that is not much in relation to this case.

What I do know is that after fifteen years of work in a drug enforcement and interdiction role on the east coast of OZ is that we confront a health issue not a criminal issue.

The "War on Drugs" is an attack on innocent people, in many respects, and we need to see it that way. Drugs have been around since Adam and Eve and will continue to be refined or enhanced. I am not suggesting I have the answer but criminalisation it is not it. Criminalisation only protects people in positions of power.

If you have time look at the following link for some rational explanation of what is happening in relation to drug wars:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/.

Enough said.

To Schapelle - you do not deserve what is happening to you in Bali and you do not deserve the vilification you cop from a bunch of undereducated bandicoots that poo all over this webpage and many others.

Now let’s move to the letters sections of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age:

“In strange contrast to drug trafficking, the Indonesian judicial system is
hardly a deterrent for terrorism.

At the rate the sentences have been reducing, before long they'll be
handing out medals for it.

William Lloyd Denistone

So to finish – I understand cannabis is legal in The Netherlands but you can get death for it in Indonesia, yet the Indonesian legal system is based on the Dutch system, you know Romans no longer keep slaves (we hope) – “When in Rome?”
Posted by Micapetal, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 2:40:24 PM
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Anyone agreeing with Indonesion law in regard to this matter should do so from within the Oz ballot box or Indonesia itself. We should expect our citizens to be subject to our standards of punishment for criminal act no matter where they are. We (Oz) have a pretty humanely balanced legal spread & should do our best to ensure our tourists etc. are not subject to grossly unfair punishment for things regarded as minor offences here.
4 eccies equals a fine in OZ. If Indonesia insists on more, attempts should be made to bring the subject home.. 100% prisoner exchange?
Posted by Swilkie, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 7:53:00 PM
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The Australian government wouldn't dream of doing something so radical as to ask for Australian sentences for Australians being tried overseas. In Schapelle's case, she arrived off a direct flight from Australia with drugs in her bag and the consular service (if you can call it that) wouldn't even ask airport authorities in Brisbane and Sydney to find out how it might have gotten there. I suppose they were scared that this would constitute inference since Indonesia wanted to send an Australian to jail for 20 years and we wouldn't want to embarass them by finding evidence that would exonerate her. They didn't even help her to find a decent lawyer. I lived in Indonesia for 9 years and this is the reality of how much help Australian consular authorities give - none and it's their policy to give none.
Posted by rogindon, Wednesday, 5 October 2005 9:44:04 AM
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Dearest Mirko

You write...

We don't refuse medical treatment to drunks who walk into the path of parked cars, obese people who have heart attacks or drug-affected drivers who slam into trees...

to which I add

... however it's not a bad idea.
Posted by arnold groove, Monday, 10 October 2005 2:35:44 PM
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A nine-gang heroin trafficking told-to-be ringleader caught with no drug on him was shoot by Indonesian police as critical evidence against him was lost – news arrived.
Posted by MichaelK., Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:27:04 PM
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