November 02, 2005

• Wow. I can't help much here BUT... That does sound stupid. I know from living in Ireland and having many friends who go over to Amsterdam for the smoke, they come back high as kites but as long as they have no weed on them, they are cool. I would have him talk to a solicitor. Grasping at straws here BUT maybe if he was bringing dope into he country in his stomach or anus it could leak into his bloodstream, and therefore be grounds for further testing?
• I'm no expert on French customs but remember being cheerfully regaled by some lad I went to school with who later became a UK customs officer about the wide-ranging powers of search without a warrant that they are given - maybe it's similar in France. A Google found this which does list a long set of similar powers granted in France. (That bloke was a wanker of the first water who I chiefly remembered as the main tormentor of a disabled lad also at our school and who was apparently turned down for his application to join the Metropolitan Police as he was deemed too racist. That was some achievement with the Met of the 1980s. Welcome to Britain!)
• As far as I know, border controls are not allowed within the Schengen area except under special circumstances (epidemics etc.). So I googled it. Apparently, France has been checking border traffic since July, although I didn't know, having not been there since. If you read the link, you'll see that the ostensible reason is protection against terrorism. And as you probably also know, the War On Terror trumps all personal rights in this brave new world. Unfortunately, the idiots who govern us aren't able to create a foreign policy that doesn't cause large sections of the world want to blow us up. With that said, crossing any border whilst smelling of a proscribed substance is contrary to common sense. Abiezer_Coppe: Yes, I believe that HM Customs and Excise are allowed to go places the police aren't. It says something about a society when those enforcing taxes have greater powers than those investigating murders... In order to protect your freedom, we had to take it away.
• around five years ago, a "friend" (okay it was me) who hadn't smoked pot in a loooong time tried some in Amsterdam & bought a little finger of hash--then drove toward Germany. Being an idiot, and not realizing how grenzenlos the new Europe was, I thought it best to consume the rest of the hash before any border patrol could intercept me. Crossed the borders from NL to Germany, and in other trips from Germany to Belgium, Belgium to NL, France to Italy and back. No patrols, no dope sniffing dogs. Got so high (higher than Afroman, thanks) that I swore off the stuff again. Was your boyfriend traveling in a highly trafficked smuggling lane? As far as what they can and cannot do--especially to a border-crossing foreigner--their laws are pretty close to what the US can do to border-crossing foreigners. I mean, I don't think they would send him to a secret prison in Yemen, but if they wanted to make his life hell for a few days, yeah, I think they could. I asked around in Italy about pot laws. Just curious--my reaquaintance with pot began and ended in Amsterdam. Apparently, they allow for an amount for "personal use" but it is not spelled out in any quantity. An Italian policeman said that the amount is vague so they can say that 1 gram is too much or look the other way for a couple of ounces, depending on the demeanor and character of the person caught. He also said that the first offenders (especially foreigners) often get a sentence of a month in a psychiatric ward to show that: 1) they don't want to be punitive or draconian 2) they don't want foreigners to turn their cities into Amsterdams (although anything that anyone could do for Naples would probably be an improvement).
• I had a layover in Amsterdam airport on my way to Vienna. They had the dog sniff my bags going INTO Amsterdam, but not OUT OF Amsterdam. Because there is a HUGE market for smuggling drugs into that place. Sheesh...
• I was going to France back to Germany on the train in 2000 with my German friend. At the border a french cop burst in on us, and demanded "what do you smoke? marijuana?" after I said "no" and showed my US passport he pretty much left me alone. He searched my friend, however, possibly because he admitted that yes, he did smoke marijuana (legal in Germany) It didnt make much sense why we would be taking pot out of France back to Germany, where we could just buy it more or less legally. Maybe he just wanted to hassle a German?
• "from France back to Germany" Jeez. What did I smoke when I wrote that sentence?
• A friend and I were searched on the way out of Amsterdam back into the UK in 1996 by an undercover policeman (in a Hard Rock Cafe shirt, no less!). He assumed we were smuggling pot back into the UK from Amsterdam, whereas we were giant dorks who had only visited museums. I assume that any traveller out of Amsterdam will get searched big-time because other countries don't like their drug laws. (This sucks, but I'm not sure what one can do about it unless one is accused of a crime one did not commit.)
• I've never been searched returning from Amsterdam to the UK, but have returning from France. Go figure.
• I have smuggled hashish from Amsterdam to Paris. I used "le shit"* to get good and stoned to go to a Miles Davis show at Bercy. *that's how it's called there
• What would've happened if it had come out positive? I don't know what the douaniers had in mind, but if they thought it was proportionate to the risk they perceived I believe they might have kept him in a 'stuffers and swallowers' suite for 48 hours. They might have gone further with the car and actually taken it apart into its individual components. They might have taken his bags apart (literally), come to that and subjected the fabric, linings and other components to chemical analysis. It's pretty bad when innocent people get put through such experiences, but it is inevitable with this kind of frontier control. My advice is not to take any risks and co-operate with Customs as cheerfully as you can manage.
• I used to live in Rotterdam. Major harbour for anything going further into Europe. Including drugs. Lots of French tourists there. Dutch not happy about that. French not happy about that. Might have something to do with this.