A He*l Away From Home

[epicstuff]

There clearly is a bigger issue than’ lock up these scumbag druggies, goodridance’

Our societies cause problems, many people fall victim to our society, unable to cope with the increasing pressure that are far from our natural environment. Some, with pier pressure and coaxing from a money driven black market, are led to drugs , these victims are then further victimized by the society that led them to that.

Maybe society is to blame , .

Wouldn’t it be better to

Take the dreariness out of the lives of those likely to fall victim.

Give better education on the uses of drugs,

take the money out the pockets of the pushers,

Quantify the doses and quality of the drugs and give people an informed freedom of choice. Take the stigma away from being labeled a criminal or junky, and approach the subject with more compassion and understanding .

I damned sure that by making something illegal has a negative psychological effect on some people , the more you say don’t do it the more something in us say ‘why not let me see for myself what’s so bad’. With all the other problems created from it being an underground activity and the already mentioned fact that society caused the problem in the 1st place , I do feel sorry for some of the people locked up inside .

Living near Khao San road for a while a few years back. I saw many people being sucked into illegal runs whether dealing with immigrants or drugs when up against a wall financially .

The recruiters’ always made it sound like it wasn’t that big a deal. With stories like . ‘its easy, I do it all the time , never get caught, or ‘no one we know’s ever been caught’ etc. I saw a couple naive kids being locked up who themselves were no danger to society in anyway shape or form.

I would personally go further and dismantle our entire society. Make it less commercially minded. There is no ethics or morals anymore all the way up to high governments, money talks, even religions have been twisted to make it OK to think business 1st. I thought even Jesus went a round tipping the tables over of all the Jewish money lenders. Now banking is totally Ok, even if the west is still pushing Christianity. Sell weapons, crap drugs and chemicals that poison the food chain and prevent natural evolution and resistance to disease , allowing people to come into our countries based on how much cash they’ve got regardless of how morally corrupt they are.

Our world is on a fast slide down hill and so few people seem to see it.

I could go on but it will be going further off topic and I’m to lazy to change the world we live in , not on my own anyway.

Enough of my rant. I hate seeing the symptom as well but there is normally a root cause.

[observer21]

Anyone here would claim that he is perfect?

I bet no one would be as stupid as to say they have not made any mistakes in life?

What if we now say that having bullied anyone should get you a life imprisonment? For because you have caused permament psychological damage to that person you bullied.

Are you capable of really imagining of looking into the life of that person who commited a drug offence in Asia? Are you capable of understanding that that person might not necessarily be an evil? That that person could actually be quite a normal person? He/she might just be vulnerable at that moment and got used by gangsters? I can guarrantee you that those who actually have to carry drugs through airports are not even close to being good at commiting evil crimes.

People use people in this world. People eat people. Can you not get it?

What about people who carry weapons to war zones by order? Should they be killed?

How one can say they are as guilty as murderers and rapists is beyond me. Unfortunately these people get punished even less. You people have been brainwashed I think.

Tell it to the judges

[Ping]

I think I have said all I am going to say on this topic. As is usually the case, there are those who hold one view, those who hold opposing views (where 'never the twain shall meet') and those with opinions sharing elements of each extreme. However, it is nice to note that there has been a considerable element of intellectual discussion and less of the usual flaming. Perhaps this indicates that, despite the facelessness of the 'net, we can occasionally discuss our opposing views just as though we were discussing them in person?

[meemiathai]

Anyone here would claim that he is perfect?

I bet no one would be as stupid as to say they have not made any mistakes in life?

What if we now say that having bullied anyone should get you a life imprisonment? For because you have caused permament psychological damage to that person you bullied.

Are you capable of really imagining of looking into the life of that person who commited a drug offence in Asia? Are you capable of understanding that that person might not necessarily be an evil? That that person could actually be quite a normal person? He/she might just be vulnerable at that moment and got used by gangsters? I can guarrantee you that those who actually have to carry drugs through airports are not even close to being good at commiting evil crimes.

People use people in this world. People eat people. Can you not get it?

What about people who carry weapons to war zones by order? Should they be killed?

How one can say they are as guilty as murderers and rapists is beyond me. Unfortunately these people get punished even less. You people have been brainwashed I think.

Tell it to the judges

Hope you never make mistakes

[meemiathai]

I think I have said all I am going to say on this topic. As is usually the case, there are those who hold one view, those who hold opposing views (where 'never the twain shall meet') and those with opinions sharing elements of each extreme. However, it is nice to note that there has been a considerable element of intellectual discussion and less of the usual flaming. Perhaps this indicates that, despite the facelessness of the 'net, we can occasionally discuss our opposing views just as though we were discussing them in person?

Agreed. But the poor girl who has been locked up for life can't. I feel very sad.

[meemiathai]

I lost my father from a traffic accident in Canada at the age of 4. I was brought up by a mentally quite ill mother here in HK.

I started staying in the streets on my own with other kids at the age of 4. I lived in a boys' home in my teens. I grew up with problem children, dodgy people. We steal, we rob, we bully. A lot of them come from problem families. Gambling fathers, criminal fathers.....etc. They had no one to love them, take care of them, teach them and protect them. They learned their own way to survive.

Up till now, some of them got killed involving criminal activities. Some are in jail. Some are with the mafia. A few doing not too bad in the society.

I was lucky not to have been caught which left me a good record resulting me working in the government now. I feel very lucky indeed now that I can live a good life. I have lots of choices in life.

Looking back, I think most of them could become good people if they had the appropriate attention. I am not saying that the society owes us anything. They or we deserve to be punished doing what we did.

My point is anyone of us has the chance of being used to do the same thing that this girl did. We can all be very vulnerable at some time. But people should be punished in proportional to what they have done.

You can't assume people smuggling drugs understand exactly what harm they bring to a society.(although arguable according to me) It is not likely that they are capable of picking up a gun or knife to kill someone. Not likely they are those who would rape. To ruin their whole life or to execute them is ridiculous!

Isn't it ironic a judge who takes cocaine sentencing a drug smuggler to death? Oh! Or do they never do drugs?

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

New push to transfer Australian prisoner

Australian Justice Minister David Johnston will take the unusual step of appealing to Australian national Labor Party MPs to pressure fellow party members in West Australia to overturn a state decision that has left a Perth woman stuck in a Thai prison. The move follows the refusal of West Australia's (WA) Correctional Services Minister Margaret Quirk to allow convicted heroin trafficker Holly Deane-Johns to return to Perth to serve out her sentence under a prisoner transfer deal. Thailand sentenced Deane-Johns to 31 years jail in 2003 for trying to send 10.4 grammes of heroin back to Australia. She had previously served a six-year jail term for drug offences in WA. Canberra and Bangkok have a longstanding prisoner transfer arrangement, but the WA Government needs to agree to take the prisoner.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=119431

==============================

Related thread here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...c=83674&hl=

Deane-Johns could be home soon: Premier

An Australian woman jailed for heroin trafficking in Thailand could serve out her sentence in Perth after Western Australia indicated it may drop opposition to her transfer.

Holly Deane-Johns, 36, was sentenced in 2003 to 31 years in Thailand's notorious Bangkok Hilton jail for possessing and attempting to smuggle heroin.

She was arrested in 2000 trying to send an envelope containing 10.4 grams of pure heroin to Australia.

Australia has had a bilateral agreement with Thailand for the transfer of sentenced prisoners since September 2002 and Deane-Johns has applied to be moved to a WA prison.

The federal government supports the transfer but WA Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk rejected the request last year saying Deane-Johns was convicted for serious offences and deserved no favours from WA.

But Premier Alan Carpenter today said an agreement to transfer Deane-Johns could soon be reached following discussions between Ms Quirk and federal Justice Minister David Johnston.

"I think we will come to some agreement with the federal government quite soon on it," Mr Carpenter told reporters.

Mr Carpenter said WA's position on Deane-Johns changed after Ms Quirk established how much jail time Deane-Johns would serve in WA and who would pay for her transfer.

He did not elaborate.

"Also, our own backbench member John Hyde has provided us with information about the conditions in which Holly Deane-Johns is being kept and the state of her health. That information was not available to us a couple of months ago."

If the Thai king does not grant Deane-Johns a royal pardon, for which she can start applying in December 2010, and she is not transferred to Australia, she could be in the Thai jail until 2031.

- AAP

[sibeymai]

"Mr Carpenter said WA's position on Deane-Johns changed after Ms Quirk established how much jail time Deane-Johns would serve in WA and who would pay for her transfer."

How disgusted I am that in my country the decision to repatriate someone from a Thai gaol boils down to bickering between public servants about who will pay the transfer costs. Even worse, initially they just weren't interested.

Just how uncaring are these people, especially someone who has responsibility for corrective services. As if Ms Quirk didn't know what conditions were like in Thai gaols. What utter BS.

Just trying to cover their political <deleted> from the backlash of a somewhat more compassionate media and electorate more like it.

Good luck to her, hope she gets home soon.

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

Carpenter says Deane-Johns repatriation imminent

A Perth woman convicted of heroin trafficking may be repatriated from jail in Thailand, West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter says.

Holly Deane-Johns, 36, was sentenced in 2003 to 31 years jail in Thailand for possessing heroin and attempting to smuggle the drug.

WA Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk rejected a request last year for Deane-Johns to be brought back to serve her time in a Perth jail. But Ms Quirk has been reviewing the case, despite having said that Deane-Johns deserved no favours from WA after being convicted of serious offences.

Mr Carpenter said today he expected Ms Quirk would soon announce that Deane-Johns could come back to a Perth prison.

"I want to see that outcome," Mr Carpenter told reporters today.

My expectation is that we will come to an agreement on Holly Deane-Johns. I anticipate that Minister Margaret Quirk will finalise the necessary details with the federal government very soon.

If not repatriated, Deane-Johns could stay in jail in Thailand until 2031 unless she is granted a royal pardon from the Thai King.

She can apply for a royal pardon in 2010.

A bilateral agreement with Thailand in place since September 2002 allows transfers of sentenced prisoners between the two countries.

- AAP

[canadiangirl]

Drug use causes problems sometimes, it's true. But demonizing drug users doesn't help anything. Some people can handle drugs, some people can't. The stigma attached to drug use means that the only drug users you can identify as such are sad, out of control cases -- because the lawyer who does E with her boyfriend on weekends, the student who has a joint to celebrate after his term exams aren't going to declare in public "hey! I do drugs!"

I'm not saying all drug use is good -- but it doesn't make sense to lump all of it into the same category either.

Did you know that most Western countries once produced cocaine?

That China's opium war was fought to prevent the British from selling opium in China?

That racism was a major factor in the adoption of the first drug laws in North America -- in Canada against Chinese laborers no longer needed once the railroads were finished, in the U.S. against the "Negro threat"? In some cases the official signing the laws into being had never heard of the drugs they were outlawing.

That despite permissive, moderate and harsh laws about marijuanas, respectively, The Netherlands, Canada and the U.S. have roughly the same percent of the population who smokes marijuana?

Edited August 8, 2007 by canadiangirl

[canadiangirl]

Isn't it ironic a judge who takes cocaine sentencing a drug smuggler to death? Oh! Or do they never do drugs?

Or, in the case of the U.S., a drunk-driving president who used to enjot a bit of coke himself pursuing a war on drugs?

[sriracha john]

Drug trafficker to transfer to Australia

Thailand's government has given the green light for Australian heroin trafficker Holly Deane-Johns to finish her jail sentence in Perth.

The 36-year-old Perth woman was convicted in 2003 of heroin possession and trafficking in Thailand.

Thai authorities sentenced her to life imprisonment, but her sentence was later reduced to 22 years and six months.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said Thai authorities had confirmed Deane-Johns will be allowed to finish her sentence in Perth.

"The Thai government has approved the transfer of Ms Holly Deane-Johns from Thailand to Australia under the prison transfer request," the spokeswoman said.

"Once formal processes have been finalised, arrangements can be made for Ms Deane-Johns to be transferred to Australia.

"The Australian government is working with the West Australian and Thai governments to ensure that Ms Deane-Johns' transfer is affected as soon as possible."

It was not immediately known when she would return to Perth.

Western Australia's Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk was unaware of the decision, her spokeswoman said.

"We haven't had any communication about the decision, but when we do, we will be sending an escort to Thailand to pick her up," she said.

Last year, Ms Quirk rejected Deane-Johns' request to return to a WA jail, saying WA prisons were not a dating service for heroin dealers.

She said Deane-Johns wanted to be closer to her boyfriend, fellow drug trafficker Stephen Wallace, who is serving a 15 year jail sentence in Casuarina Prison.

She later reviewed the decision on health grounds and approved the request for transfer.

A bilateral agreement with Thailand, in place since September 2002, allows transfers of sentenced prisoners between the two countries.

- AAP

[sriracha john]

Holly Deane-Johns will be returned to Australia under the International Transfer of Prisoners Scheme to complete sentence.

Reuters

Thailand agrees to allow Deane-Johns to return to Australia

The Thai Government has approved the transfer of convicted heroin smuggler Holly Deane-Johns to Australia. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says the transfer will take place once formal processes have been finalised. The department says it is working to ensure the transfer can occur as soon as possible.

Deane-Johns was sentenced to 31 years in a Thai prison after she was convicted of trying to post 10 grams of heroin from Thailand to Australia in 2000.

Yesterday, Thai prison authorities held a meeting to discuss Deane-Johns' case and decide the transfer issue.

Perth man Brian Haffenden who's a friend of Deane-Johns has told the ABC he expects she will be back in WA within a week. "It would appear that there's an arrangement made whereby she has been told she will serve five years in the prison here, Bandyup, and then on five years parole," he said.

"But I have every belief that, before that five years is expired, she will receive a royal pardon from his majesty the King of Thailand."

The Western Australian Government says the transfer is a federal matter but has confirmed that Deane-Johns' application was to be sent back to WA.

It is expected she will be incarcerated at Bandyup Women's Prison in Perth upon her return.

- ABC News

[drenoi]

Good news for Holly!!

[drenoi]

Drug use causes problems sometimes, it's true. But demonizing drug users doesn't help anything. Some people can handle drugs, some people can't. The stigma attached to drug use means that the only drug users you can identify as such are sad, out of control cases -- because the lawyer who does E with her boyfriend on weekends, the student who has a joint to celebrate after his term exams aren't going to declare in public "hey! I do drugs!"

I'm not saying all drug use is good - why not? I always feel good when I take drugs!! just kidding!! I've never tried drugs! Drugs are bad, down with dope, up with hope!!! -- but it doesn't make sense to lump all of it into the same category either.

Did you know that most Western countries once produced cocaine?

That China's opium war was fought to prevent the British from selling opium in China?

That racism was a major factor in the adoption of the first drug laws in North America -- in Canada against Chinese laborers no longer needed once the railroads were finished, in the U.S. against the "Negro threat"? In some cases the official signing the laws into being had never heard of the drugs they were outlawing.

That despite permissive, moderate and harsh laws about marijuanas, respectively, The Netherlands, Canada and the U.S. have roughly the same percent of the population who smokes marijuana?

I knew all those things I think the problem is mainly with peoples' perceptions and the fear that has been sown into the minds of everyone over a sustained period of time (40+ years). People who experiment with substances are all percieved as junkies by anyone who doesn't know better. If you've ever smoked some grass or dropped an E then you're out of control, have glowing red eyes like the devil and are likely to rob everyone in the neighbour hood in order to pay for your next joint !! Refer Madness!! If you take a toke you're gonna be a rapist! Its what most older 40+ people I know think until you tell them the truth.

For me, the thing to remember is: Addict or not, they are still humans beings.

[bina]

drenoi, u must be a 30- something in age without any knowledge of history :

40+

REALLY??!!

most of us 40+ are the tail end of the 1960-70-80 light users; most of us grew up got married had kids and put our party reefer use aside... i could write a book about grow your own in the woods... so could most of the kids in my high school, in my university, in my sister's school/uni, etc. PCB (angel dust) was the main cause of psychotic deaths in our area, now crack apparently is (i dont live in the states anymore).

however, be that as it may, drugs have changed and becomes stronger wierder and more dangerous.. more synthetic (we limited ourselves to natural substances ala carlos castenada)and the hard drug market is commercial, dangerous, exploits the agricultural poor and always has(heroin production etc)and the city weak...

we 40+ had our own codes: never slipped something in someone's drink, never forced someone to take a toke, never bought more then for personal use, did well in school (we were hippie nerds i guess), never served the wrong mushrooms on all the slices of pizza.

i dont think druggies are red eyed monsters. i think they are sad idiots. and as we always tell our kids, if u are stupid enough to get caught, then u deserve it. (friend of mine's son busted twice for lighting a joint on a beach, how dumb can u get when in israel it is not cool to get high in public).

we had two kids here on the kibbutz jailed in india for small packets of drugs found in their backpacks. they claimed they were innocent. it cost thousands of dollars for the parents to release them to come home. they werent innocent. they continued to use all kinds of stuff here until the girl got married and had a kid. they were the biggest druggies u can imagine.

i found a bullet in my daughter's back pack right before we flew to thailand (leftover from when my ex used the pack when in reserves a few years ago) . she could be sitting in jail for that right now. but i've learned from other's mistakes: check everything with a fine toothed comb, and dont get sucked in to doing stupid things (take this package for a friend of mine....).

[TAWP]

i found a bullet in my daughter's back pack right before we flew to thailand (leftover from when my ex used the pack when in reserves a few years ago) . she could be sitting in jail for that right now. but i've learned from other's mistakes: check everything with a fine toothed comb, and dont get sucked in to doing stupid things (take this package for a friend of mine....).

Wow, that could have been scary. "Never trust a bag you haven't packed yourself "is always a good advice too.

[drenoi]

drenoi, u must be a 30- something in age without any knowledge of history :

40+

REALLY??!!

most of us 40+ are the tail end of the 1960-70-80 light users; most of us grew up got married had kids and put our party reefer use aside... i could write a book about grow your own in the woods... so could most of the kids in my high school, in my university, in my sister's school/uni, etc. PCB (angel dust) was the main cause of psychotic deaths in our area, now crack apparently is (i dont live in the states anymore).

i dont think druggies are red eyed monsters. i think they are sad idiots.

Obviously I'm 30-

I was giving my opinion on why drug users are demonized in society. As you said above you've had experience with drugs, you don't think druggies are red eyed monsters who are going to rob you and steal your money for another toke on the bong, but there are alot of people who haven't had an association with drugs or people who use drugs who do think like that. It seams you are not the type of person who demonizes people who choose to experiment with outlawed substances, which I was refering to. My point was that I believe people are demonized because others fear them because of sustained campaings by governments in your era and now.

[Acquiesce]

I knew all those things I think the problem is mainly with peoples' perceptions and the fear that has been sown into the minds of everyone over a sustained period of time (40+ years). People who experiment with substances are all percieved as junkies by anyone who doesn't know better. If you've ever smoked some grass or dropped an E then you're out of control, have glowing red eyes like the devil and are likely to rob everyone in the neighbour hood in order to pay for your next joint !! Refer Madness!! If you take a toke you're gonna be a rapist! Its what most older 40+ people I know think until you tell them the truth.

For me, the thing to remember is: Addict or not, they are still humans beings.

LOL, i'm 33 and it may suprise you to learn that our generation did not invent recreational drug use. My father has smoked weed on a regular basis for over 40 years.

[bonobo]

The current world climate re "drug policy" is directed and financed by the United States of America. They have it wrong. Anyone who makes the slightest effort to research the history of the "Drug War" will learn that initially it was political pork-bellying to absorb the law-enforment officers displaced by the end of Alcohol prohibition. Another failed policy. As one poster noted above, many of you alcohol drinkers could and would fall afoul of the laws in muslim countries. Many posters have worked and still work in these countries. The production of home-brewed alcohol is one reaction to these laws. Actual production of an "prohibited" intoxicant. If shared with friends, add trafficking to the list.

Just where is the backing for this bashing? This is pure propaganda fabricated by the same type of people who avow that AIDS is a CIA plot to kill the Africans or 911 is an American/Israeli plot for who-knows-what purpose.

Personally, I am for compassion and treatment rather than corporal punishment. I have a lot of sympathy for users (not much for dealers, though). The Taliban executed growers and essentially wiped most of the poppy crops in their country (now they push its cultivation to finance their fight.) But is this the way we of the western world want to be? Like the Taliban?

But to write that the western world's drug policy started merely as a way for Americans to employ excess law enforement capacity is ludicrous. In fact, anyone making the "slightest effort to research the history of the 'Drug War' " would discover that in the US, it started in 1880 with the treaty between the US and China concerning the opium trade, long before prohibition began. THen in 1914, the Harrison Narcotic Act was signed into law, making domestic distribution of narcotics ilegal. The term "War on Drugs" was not coined until 1969, and while one poster castigated Nixon for it, this was the first time in US history that more money was spent on rehabilitation of addicts than on law enforcement.

Please get your facts straight before blindly throwing around total fabrications.

[TAWP]

But we cannot avoid the elephant in the livingroom...the banning of lighter drugs in the US was done using racist stereotypes and fear mongering in propaganda movies. There is a reason that the mexicans recreational drug was banned while the domestic drug was allowed - and still are.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

Heroin smuggler tipped to serve out term in Perth

Convicted drug smuggler Holly Deane-Johns is expected to return home to Perth this week.

Deane-Johns has spent seven years of a 31-year sentence in a Thai prison for trying to send 10 grams of heroin in the mail to Australia. The Thai government and authorities in Australia recently agreed to allow her to serve out the rest of her time in a Western Australia jail.

Supporter Brian Haffenden says a source in Thailand has told him Deane-Johns will fly to Perth some time this week. "I'm satisfied and pleased for Holly, very pleased for her when she gets home and I'm sure her rehabilitation will be successful," he said.

"I look forward to the opportunity of meeting her when she gets in to the prison system here."

- ABC (Australia)

[siamamerican]

Legalizing illicit drugs is not the answer. I've used many in the past and never faced any consequences - except a hangover. Many youth need to be restrained and not having drugs readily available was in some part the reason I didn't indulge on a regular basis. As I matured (mid 20s - late bloomer ) I better understood the consequences and refrained form using.

All drugs aren't equal and the determination of what is legal is far from perfect. This is not a justification to legalize all drugs. How pleasant would it be to get a call that your 19 year old daughter while at college just overdosed from heroin that was legally purchased.

Listing drugs that are legal and dangerous is not an good argument to legalize all drugs. I wonder, if tobacco was illegal, would tobacco related deaths drop and the enormous cost to society. Not a proponent of this, just curious.

[Sunderland]

Despite being caught obviously smuggling large quantities of obviously illegal drugs, they act like it's no big deal, and rant on about being singled out and being "made an example" blah blah blah. Poor me. How was I to know that smuggling 2 kilos of pure herion (up me @ss) was illegal ?

If it was legal, then why were you hiding up your butt (or in your gut, ect) ?

Pathetic.

Utter rubbish. I know quite a few of the prisoners in Bang Kwang personally and none of them reflect the above statement. In fact it is the typical rant and bleet of an uneducated onlooker

... or the utter rubbish spouted by people who would like others to think they are innocent.

[zorro1]

"trying to mail a small parcel of heroin to Australia"

You have no idea what your talking about ! do you know how much death and destruction is in a "small package"? Just a matchbox full is enough to destroy 100 lives and I got a feeling she sent more than that. She is a very lucky girl .She deserves death really

[sriracha john]

In an article title that mirrors the thread title....

Holly Deane-Johns back after seven years in Thai jail hel_l

Convicted heroin trafficker Holly Deane-Johns is being flown home in secret this week after spending seven years in a Thai jail.

The State Government refused to reveal details of her transfer to Australia, but The Sunday Times has learnt the 35-year-old will be back in Perth later this week.

Two WA Corrective Services officers will travel to Bangkok Central Women's Prison to pick up Deane-Johns as part of a repatriation scheme between the two countries. The trip will cost taxpayers about $10,000.

Wearing clothes sent by her sister, Amy, Levi 501 jeans and a top, and with her hair expected to be dyed blonde, Deane-Johns will be handcuffed to the officers on the way to Bangkok airport. She will be uncuffed for the long trip home, sitting between the two agents.

On arrival, she will be taken to Bandyup Women's Prison, in Perth's eastern suburbs, where she will serve a further five years.

Amy said earlier this year that Deane-Johns was looking forward to touching down on Australian soil.

She said she was craving a Hungry Jack's Whopper, though she realised she would not get takeaway food in Bandyup.

Deane-Johns initially faced the death penalty for trying to send 10.4g of heroin to Australia in 2000, but ended up being sentenced to 31 years' jail in 2003.

In several letters to Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk, she begged to be allowed to serve her sentence in Perth, where her sister and supporters live. Ms Quirk initially refused, but yielded to pressure from the Federal Government, lawyers, Labor MPs and supporters.

"I am sorry for my crimes and wish to make something of my life in an environment where I might receive appropriate medical care and access the rehabilitation options available to me in WA, prior to my release back to the community," Deane-Johns wrote in a letter to Ms Quirk earlier this year.

In other correspondence, she wrote of the horrors of life in a Thai jail.

"You live like an animal here," she said. "You just don't live like people here. Sometimes all the water is turned off in the prison, everywhere. You can wait 20 minutes when you are desperate to go to the toilet. Drinking water sometimes has lice and pubic hairs in it."

Deane-Johns' release has divided West Australians, with many saying she should serve out her sentence in Thailand. But the state head of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, Tom Percy, said she had already served more time than some murderers in WA and the alliance would lobby for her Bandyup sentence to be cut.

"Once a full assessment is made of Holly, her mental and physical health is assessed and the likelihood of her re-offending is assessed, then we believe a decision can be made as to whether she should be released sooner," he said.

- news.com.au

[PattayaParent]

Deane-Jones..........has beaten her drug addiction by sheer will.

So being banged up in a Thai prison for 3 years with no access to drugs has nothing to do with it?

Or do they hand out hroin to addicts in the prisons here?

[sriracha john]

Deane-Jones..........has beaten her drug addiction by sheer will.

So being banged up in a Thai prison for 3 years with no access to drugs has nothing to do with it?

Or do they hand out heroin to addicts in the prisons here?

No, you have to pay for it...

From everything I've read and heard, it's quite available.

[drenoi]

Deane-Jones..........has beaten her drug addiction by sheer will.

So being banged up in a Thai prison for 3 years with no access to drugs has nothing to do with it?

Or do they hand out heroin to addicts in the prisons here?

No, you have to pay for it...

From everything I've read and heard, it's quite available.

Yes, from everything I've read you can get anything in a Thai prison if you have the money. Didn't a guy just get arrested for running an operation which exported heroin from Thailand to the US, out of a Thai prison? Also some accounts say that life in a Thai prison is unbearable without the use of heroin.

Also forgive me for my naivety as I've little to no experience with heroin but isn't 10 grams an awfully small amount to get the death sentence for? Should the article say 10kg?

[sriracha john]

Deane-Jones..........has beaten her drug addiction by sheer will.

So being banged up in a Thai prison for 3 years with no access to drugs has nothing to do with it?

Or do they hand out heroin to addicts in the prisons here?

No, you have to pay for it...

From everything I've read and heard, it's quite available.

Yes, from everything I've read you can get anything in a Thai prison if you have the money. Didn't a guy just get arrested for running an operation which exported heroin from Thailand to the US, out of a Thai prison?

Actually it was three and a very glaring example of what's available, covered in Thaivisa thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...=106906&hl=

Two Thais And An Australian Extradited To America for running a heroin ring from inside a Thai prison

Also some accounts say that life in a Thai prison is unbearable without the use of heroin.

Also forgive me for my naivety as I've little to no experience with heroin but isn't 10 grams an awfully small amount to get the death sentence for? Should the article say 10kg?

10 grams... the weight of one of those single-serve drip coffee packets (including the filter packaging):