A He*l Away From Home

[zorro1]

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?

if you shoot up 1 gram of pure smack you will be dead within 30 seconds

[brahmburgers]

I've tried nearly every type of drug - including mainlining heroin. Among other things, heroin is a relaxing opiate drug. My main impression was I felt very comfortable (body and mind) and didn't have a worry in the world. Is that the type of feeling we want to execute people for feeling - or incarcerate with 24-hour misery for decades?

Sure heroin is other things in other situations. Heck milk could be criminalized - if you take the fact that some mass murderers had a glass of milk before doing their dastardly acts.

Heroin can be enjoyable, but I don't have an addictive nature, so I did it (36 years ago) - and then I went on with my life. In the decades since, I've been a health nut, no drinking smoking, eating beef, nor eating MSG-laden food (very difficult to avoid MSG in Thailand).

The main reason heroin (and opium and ganja) are so severely outlawed in SE Asia is U.S. pressure. Even hemp is outlawed in the Thailand (again, because they follow the U.S. note for note). How stoned can you get from hemp? You can smoke a garbagge can full of hemp and all you'll get is a headache and dizziness. Yet, possession of a thimblefull of hemp could land you in a stinking Thai prison for decades.

If looked at objectively and reasonably, it's plain that alcoholic drinks are far more harmful than heroin. Indeed, alcohol is more harmful to individuals and society as a whole - than all illegal drugs combined.

But alas, this is not a reasonable nor objective world we live in, and hotheads rule and make the laws - so small timers who send a little bit of drugs in the post are jumped on and villified as if they're throat slashers.

[seonai]

What rot brahmburgers, the US supports a huge amount of Heroin smuggling - people with briefcases are common drug traffickers to Europe and the US - the biggest traffikers are the unseen problem not small people like Deanne Jones - although i do agree that any connection with these people is ridiculous unless you are in a major mafia. Too boot, heroin is highly addictive and makes the person taking it imagine that they don't have a care in the world so that they can't function in the real world any more

[siamamerican]

If looked at objectively and reasonably, it's plain that alcoholic drinks are far more harmful than heroin. Indeed, alcohol is more harmful to individuals and society as a whole - than all illegal drugs combined.

But alas, this is not a reasonable nor objective world we live in, and hotheads rule and make the laws - so small timers who send a little bit of drugs in the post are jumped on and villified as if they're throat slashers.

You're comparing the consequences of a legal drug to an illegal drug. Because alchohol is legal and readily available, it is more harmful to society. Hey, I've done my share of drugs and I'm not a hothead. I do think it would be a risky experiment to legalise a powerful drug like heroin.

[Farma]

Australian drug trafficker to return home

December 06, 2007 06:12pm

AUSTRALIAN drug trafficker Holly Deane-Johns has been moved from a Thai jail to an immigration detention centre ahead of her expected return to Australia under a prisoner transfer deal.

Deane-Johns arrived at Bangkok's Central Immigration Detention Centre this morning to be processed for her departure to Australia, the ABC reported today.

It's understood she is confirmed on a flight to Perth tonight, the ABC said.

The Perth woman was convicted of heroin possession and trafficking in Thailand in 2003 for trying to mail 10.4g of heroin to Australia in 2000.

She has already served seven years of a 31-year sentence.

In September, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed Thai authorities had agreed to allow Deane-Johns to finish her sentence in a West Australian jail.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0...5003402,00.html

[cm-happy]

No sympathy here. she and they all got exactly what they deserve.

IF YOU CAN'T DO THE TIME, DON'T DO THE CRIME

[sriracha john]

She's back now...

Holly Deane-Johns back in Perth

Drug trafficker Holly Deane-Johns has landed back at Perth Airport after seven years in a Thai jail for heroin trafficking. She'll serve the rest of her jail term in WA.

With her plane some 90 minutes late, she eventually touched down on WA soil for the first time in seven years just after 10am.

She was the last to leave the aircraft handcuffed to two WA corrective services officers who had brought her back from Bangkok.

Like all criminals returning to Perth Deane-Johns was not processed through normal passport and immigration controls. Instead she was taken into a Federal Police office inn the passport control hall.

From there she was taken to a prison van that did not leave by the normal security gates. It was driven around a perimeter road of the airport to another gate close to the Perth Domestic Terminal before heading to nearby Bandyup Prison, in Caversham.

Deane-Johns -- convicted in 2003 in Thailand for heroin possession and trafficking after trying to mail 10.4 grams of the drug to Australia three years earlier -- has so far served seven years of a 31-year sentence.

The Perth woman has been returned to Australia under a prisoner transfer scheme.

She arrived this morning and was immediately transferred to Bandyup Women's Prison, in Perth's north-east, WA Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk said in a statement.

The decision to allow Deane-Johns to return to Australia comes after Ms Quirk rejected an initial transfer request last year, on the basis of her past prison record, lack of family support in WA and the nature of her offending.

But the minister finally agreed to the transfer after receiving information that Deane-Johns' health would be seriously compromised in the Thai prison.

A number of community members also volunteered to provide support for her rehabilitation.

"Holly Deane-Johns is one of 181 prisoners at Bandyup Prison and she will be treated the same as everyone else,'' Ms Quirk said.

"Ms Deane-Johns will serve five years in WA and undergo appropriate programs so that when she is eventually released, she will not reoffend and will become a useful member of society.''

In September, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed Thai authorities had agreed to allow Deane-Johns to finish her sentence in a West Australian jail.

She will serve five years in prison and five years on parole unless the King of Thailand pardons her, in which case she is likely to be immediately freed.

Long term supporter Brian Haffenden said he expected she would be given a royal pardon by the Thai king before she finished serving out her sentence "based on experience from other foreigners that have done the treaty exchange''.

"We've had two in recent years - one here in Western Australia and one in the eastern states,'' he said.

- AAP

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

News video clip:

Deane-Johns released into Australian custody

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?e...-t-501&c=av

Edited December 7, 2007 by sriracha john

[epicstuff]

I can't say I feel sorry for them. Most likely they didn't get hooked on drugs in this country so why should they try to get people in this country hooked on drugs.

Their actions are an attack on Thailand and they should be treated as enemies of the state. I feel the same way as the people bringing drugs in the United States.

Many people blame drugs and thugs as part of the problem in the south of Thailand. If this is true, then these people are contributing to the deaths in the south of Thailand.

If they want to commit a crime with a light punishment then perhaps they should stay in their country and sell their crap.

If they come to Thailand they should be aware they take the chance of being in a horrible prision or being executed if caught.

If they want to use the foreigers in Thai prisions as the pulpit for their cause, perhaps they should change their message and direct it to the people of their own country on how dealing drugs in Thailand one time can ruin a life.

Not all drugs are addictive by the way and some are fun but all are demonized. Some of these poor trafficers are providing a dangerous but nessassary service for those who want drugs. Otherwise we have to rely on the overpriced shit that the CIA bring in.

[bonobo]

Some posters are spouting off about the move of some western nations to decriminalize drugs--as if that makes a whit of difference here. THe bottom line is that when you are in a different country, you follow their rules.

I am not much of a drug user--I don't even get drunk. But should I be curious about pot, I would try it in Amsterdam. Not here, not in the Middle East, not in the US. Their jurisdiction, their laws. I am personally anti-death penalty, but my opinion doesn't matter should I traffic in drugs here, desecrate the Koran in a Pakastani village, or deal in large scale corruption in China. They make the rules and I would pay the price.

I happen to like images of nud_e women (I have won numerous photography awards for nudes I have shot) , and I have photos of several past girfriends and models I have shot on my computer. When I go to the Middle East, none of that goes with me. I think their opinions on that type of photography are repressive and fanatical. But it is their choice to make the laws they want. And if I want to go there, I have to follow those rules. Or I will pay the consequences.

Deal with drugs in Thailand at your own risk. But do not come crying to me when you get caught and have to face the music. On one level, I might feel sorry for you and wonder why you made that choice, but on the other level, I feel you need to pay for those choices.

Edited December 7, 2007 by bonobo

[Pundi64]

Do The Crime, Serve The Time !! People who smuggle heroin and the like, know what they are doing, then they wine when things go bad. They come here, knowing Thailand, or S.E. Asia is easy drug countries, if they don't want to face their own doing in these countries, then stay home !! We are all better off with out you!

[meemiathai]

I really wonder what the logic is in the minds of people who think one can smoke weed in a country perfectly ok but then suddenly when they are in another country peoples' lives are again perfectly ok to be totally fvcked up for possessing them.

No wonder religion is rife among human beings! They give them the chance not having to think!