Next time you decide to fly off from your leafy suburb to some exotic destination, make sure you're up to speed with the drugs and other laws applicable to the buy dihydrocodeine online country you plan to visit.
Periodically in the United Arab Emirates incoming travellers run foul of the law when found in possession of one or more of the 365 banned substances. "Possession" includes having traces of the substance in your urine.
Just imagine. You have a bon voyage bash at your favourite watering hole and the morning you fly, you have a hangover. So, you dip into your medicine chest and take a couple of painkillers. You put a few in your bag just in case you need them later, after all, it was a great night and you had a few too many.
Several hours later you land at Dubai. You are excited ... your first time in the Middle East, your credit card is fully paid up and there's all that duty free stuff you want to buy. But instead of getting to the Dubai malls, you finish up in the Al Wathba prison ... not exactly what you'd intended.
Unbeknown to you, your painkillers contain codeine phosphate, a drug outlawed in the UAE. When the UAE Customs officials asked you to step aside, you felt 100% confident that you'd have no problems. After the officials found your painkillers, they had you do a urine test which was positive for codeine. Then you were whisked away for 12 months jail. Not the holiday you had intended, right?
In the UAE you can receive lengthy jail sentences for possession of drugs that have been prescribed to you by a doctor in your own country. Drugs you buy without a prescription can also be a problem. If you smoke cannabis or take some of the other non-medicinal drugs, you can receive a four year mandatory sentence. No if's, but's or maybe's.
Recently, the local news media reported the sorry story of a disk jockey from some Western country who received the four year sentence for possession of 2.6 grams of cannabis. He claimed to have inadvertently left it in the pocket of trousers he had packed for the trip. Too bad.
Another person had 0.003 grams of cannabis stuck to the sole of his shoe and received the four year sentence. Another was found with three poppy seeds from the top of a roll of bread he had eaten.
The lesson for all of us here is to make sure we know what we can and can't take overseas to countries we plan to visit, before we leave our own country. Most Western countries have government departments that provide information for citizens travelling to overseas countries. Read it.
Perhaps it's a good idea to wash all your clothes before you depart and, if you are receiving medication from a doctor, get the doctor to write a letter stating what the medication is and why it was prescribed.
Statistically, there is a small chance of being jailed for drugs possession while entering the United Arab Emirates, but you do need to be aware of the buy dihydrocodeine online potential and make sure you don't make the news for the wrong reasons.
Happy travelling.
Robin Henry is an educator, human resources specialist and Internet entrepreneur who writes articles about a wide range of topics. He comes from Alice Springs in Central Australia but is currently temporarily residing at Al Ain, near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.