An Australian has been arrested in Indonesia after illegal drugs were found on board his yacht.
His boat was searched by authorities, who allegedly found 0.006g of methamphetamine, News Corp Australia reported.
Wait, what? How much?
0.006 grams.
It’s not a typo, that quantity is repeated again in the body of the news report.
For context, a single grain of sand weighs about double that, at around 0.011 grams.
There was a similar case in 2008, of a Briton jailed for four years in Dubai for having a microscopic amount of cannabis on the sole of his shoe.
Bill’s Opinion
Two things can be correct at the same time; on the one hand, when visiting foreign countries, we should respect their laws.
On the other hand, we can point at cases such as this as further evidence that our 800+ year culture and tradition of Common Law is superior to all other systems tried so far. Cultural relativism is a fallacy and is to be rejected.
Why? De minimis non curat lex…..
There was a similar case in Japan. A woman ODed in a celebrity’s fancy apartment. Police searched the place and found a trace amount of the drug in a bin – I think an even smaller amount than in the Indonesian case.
Technically this is possession. I think he got jail time.
Mind you, this was only because the girl died. Japanese police are selective in choosing which laws to enforce, when. If someone is disrupting social harmony they’ll always find something to charge him with.
I don’t think Indonesian police are swabbing every yacht for microscopic amounts of narcotics – perhaps he was a suspected dealer but the gear had already been sold.
Yachties are druggies, generally speaking.
I resemble that remark….
Yep there is definitely more to this than being reported judging by his admissions. He scored the meth a while ago and has been taking it since, was on it at the time and done his back in during the raid, and to cap it off a Darwinian from East Timor as well!
First I a have heard of meth being used to treat back injuries.
Hes probably signing like a bird now.
When posting on social media a certain amount of self-censorship is advisable.
Better still, I find avoiding social media completely works well too.
That way, I can still kid myself that people I know aren’t completely insane or utterly foolish.
I had quite forgotten the concept that ‘the law does not concern itself with trifles’, but then I am not a lawyer. Or perhaps it was being surrounded by those who seem to also not be aware, and look for redress from a system for whatever small matter they currently seem irritated by.
I was also not aware that all yachties are druggies, so I might start looking at some of my acquaintances differently. It does explain a lot however.