Mules

[liadnan]

Interesting post by Craig Murray on a rather different kind of topic from his usual: challenging the general view that seems to be being taken by all -including, it appears, by HMRC- that it's somehow appalling that two young British women might go on trial and possibly to prison for drug smuggling in the awful land of Foreign. As Murray points out (a) Ghana is a fairly stable democracy and there is nothing particularly wrong with its judicial system, it is insulting and patronising to assume otherwise without evidence, (b) the cocaine trade which is beginning to cause real problems there is largely the fault of demand in the developed world (and drugs policy here), (c) it's a bit difficult to believe the girls can have thought the bag was empty: 7lb is a noticeable weight, so there is clearly a case to be answered.

ETA: this isn't about drugs policy incidentally: actually I tend to the libertarian view that we'd do better to legalise the lot and let people go to hell as they choose. But for the present, trafficking is an offence under the laws of both Ghana and the UK, as a result of international policy largely directed in the developed world, yet continues to happen, largely because of demand in the developed world. Also if there are any criminal practitioners reading this (Ruthie?) I'd be interested in their views of what might actually have happened -in practice what might the charge and possible sentence have been- had they been picked up at Heathrow rather than in Ghana.

ETFA: Murray's comment on the Cahill and Smith case some years back may sound harsh. but ask anyone who has done any backpacking whether they could possibly fail to notice 40kg of heroin in their luggage -when most airlines ban bags weighing more than 25kg because they consider it too heavy for baggage handlers.