Melatonin: scourge of Dubai

Here's a pretty unpleasant reminder that, as bad as the war on drugs is here in the States, it can get even uglier elsewhere. The partner of one of Coilhouse's founders recently traveled to Dubai and wound up in unexpected trouble:

On Saturday morning Diz flew into Dubai airport and was detained at immigration. We kind of knew he would be profiled because he has long hair and looks oriental (they are very racist against Asians in Dubai, and ultra-conservative). He knew the score going in: prescription drugs are illegal, dress conservatively and detox for a week (even trace amounts of either illegal or prescription drugs in the urine are prosecuted as 'drug smuggling'. I'm not joking).

They found melatonin on him, which he bought over the counter in the US. Legally, you can even buy it over the counter in Dubai.

They arrested him, anyway.

He was strip searched, forced to do a urine test and thrown in jail. In their search they dug into the bottom of his bag and came up with a few fragments of dirt, which they allege is hashish, a total and utter fabrication. They also claimed that the melatonin was actually drugs, which was clearly a lie.

The sentence if convicted is a blanket four years, with a minimum of six months in prison in one of Dubai's squalid, third world facilities.

After detaining him for three days, the melatonin was determined to be just that, and his urine was clear. Now they've asked for a seven day extension to test the dirt, and we trust that he will be on his way home after that.

They've been psychologically abusing all of us. One minute we're told they'll let him go as soon as they test the pills, the next we're told they are going through and pressing charges against him.

Diz could use your support in various ways, which are detailed over here.

Back when we were publishing Trip magazine, we used to run a regular feature that took a look at drug war casualties around the world. You'd get the (sadly) typical round up of how many hundreds of thousands of Americans and westerners wound up in jail due to the war on drugs, and then, oh yeah, how many people had their hands and their heads chopped off in other parts of the world for similar offenses. But Diz is in a special little Bizarro world; the idea that you can get melatonin OTC in Dubai and he still got harassed for it seems like something the US State Department should be getting completely up in arms about.

And if that doesn't work, we should invade Dubai and rescue him. It seems like a perfect opportunity to try out the arsenal of high velocity scopolamine flechette rounds, for purposes of ironic justice.