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Ok, now I can understand people getting in trouble because they carry banned medicine,.

However the poor guy in this case spent a month in jail, because even though the medicine wasnt banned, the authorities took 1 month to verify it was ok.

Why on earth should a person be in jail with criminals while a perfectly ok medicine is checked ?

http://www.7days.ae/storydetails.php?id=85727

The Canadian government has warned its tourists to be extra careful when travelling to the UAE after two men spent a month in a Dubai prison for possession of arthritis medicine.

The Canadian Foreign Affairs case worker for the Middle East, Nathalie Tenorio-Roy, described the case as an “ordeal” and said that her ministry had updated its UAE travel advice to warn tourists of the risk.

Rocky Sharma and Stephen Macleod said they went through a “nightmare” after the arthritis drug Celebrex was found in Macleod’s bag.

The drug is not banned in the UAE but it took a month to verify its status and whether it contained any illegal ingredients before the men were eventually released.
In an email to the duo, Tenorio-Roy said her government had now sent out a new warning to tourists because of the men’s “unfortunate ordeal”.

The ministry now warns tourists that they could face “long delays” before they will have the chance to talk to a member of embassy staff if they are arrested.

Macleod, a dialysis nurse, was taking the medicine for back pain and had a prescription from his doctor.

The pair spent a month in jail, during which Canadian officials rushed to get specialist medicine sent from Paris for Sharma, who suffers from a serious ongoing medical condition.

“I could have died without my medicine. I can’t thank the Canadian consulate enough for their help,” Sharma told 7DAYS.

The pair were returning from a holiday in Sharma’s native India and stopped off in the UAE on August 2 to see the “glittering lights of Dubai”.

However, airport police arrested both of them after finding Celebrex in Macleod’s bag.

“I was suddenly in a room with ten other men, I didn’t know what was going on,” Macleod said. He was taken to an isolation room before being moved to the medical wing of Dubai Central Jail because of his illness.

Executive director of Dubai Customs Cargo Operations, Mohammed Al Marri, told 7DAYS that Dubai Customs advertises very clearly in airports and in airline publications that certain medicines are not allowed in the country.

If a person shows their medicine to customs officials, it will be inspected along with a Ministry of Health official to determine if the substance is allowed into the country.

If the medicine is not declared and is found in luggage, the person will then be told if the substance is to be confiscated.

Al Marri said officials always try to act reasonably.

An official at the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the men were held for the Celebrex drug and that the Dubai consulate had fought to have the men released.

Huh? how could this be? I got a friend who is suffering from Tendositis and was given Celebrex here from one Hospital in Dubai..
It takes that long to verify if its banned or not, why can't they just check the hospitals atleast or pharmacies here?

Daaa this is one way to smuggle drugs throw airports. Beside medications are categorized , some effect your brain like the psychotropic medications that are only allowed if it's not available in the country, and should get a prior approval before flying in.
Those procedures and medication categorization is international law, not only in UAE for example :
UAE…
http://www.uaeinteract.com/travel/drugs.pdf
Japan
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/topics/import/index.html

then you have to look at the quantity of the drugs carried with you that is only for personal use then make sure it is not a liquid drug.

All countries requires preauthorization's of drugs, just make sure you check each country regulation before flying in, it's called common sense.

I got pulled for 4 hours in the US just for carrying grinded dry vegetables !!



but they could've at least bail him out until results are back, poor guy.

uaekid wrote:just make sure you check each country regulation before flying in, it's called common sense.

According to the story, he had a prescription, and celebrex is not on the banned drugs list. Sounds like common sense to me. Unless you mean UAE drugs common sense which is don't bring anything even if you have a prescription, not even panadol, sun cream, soap, or toothpaste .

This story is not the full story i suspect.

Anyone with more than 3 brain cells could look on the internet to decide if this drug contains illegal or banned UAE substances.

They could have looked the drug up at the Airport, one assumes they have internet access or was it a case of Estisucks a lot having a bad day that day?

I found it in 30 secs on Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrex

Why the Canadian Consulate couldn't lodge a complaint and show the drug evidence/properties in the first 24 hours and demanding "bail" staggers me.

arniegang wrote:This story is not the full story i suspect.

Anyone with more than 3 brain cells could look on the internet to decide if this drug contains illegal or banned UAE substances.

They could have looked the drug up at the Airport, one assumes they have internet access or was it a case of Estisucks a lot having a bad day that day?

I found it in 30 secs on Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrex

Why the Canadian Consulate couldn't lodge a complaint and show the drug evidence/properties in the first 24 hours and demanding "bail" staggers me.

So you are assuming everyone here has more than 3 brain cells.

If a person can be thrown to jail for having poppy seeds under his shoe, or after having a sandwich with poppy seeds at Heathrow, then anything can happen.

And you are also assuming everyone here is web savvy....

uaekid wrote:Daaa this is one way to smuggle drugs throw airports. Beside medications are categorized , some effect your brain like the psychotropic medications that are only allowed if it's not available in the country, and should get a prior approval before flying in.
Those procedures and medication categorization is international law, not only in UAE for example :
UAE…
http://www.uaeinteract.com/travel/drugs.pdf
Japan
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/topics/import/index.html

then you have to look at the quantity of the drugs carried with you that is only for personal use then make sure it is not a liquid drug.

All countries requires preauthorization's of drugs, just make sure you check each country regulation before flying in, it's called common sense.

I got pulled for 4 hours in the US just for carrying grinded dry vegetables !!



but they could've at least bail him out until results are back, poor guy.

C’mon Kid…

You can’t be serious!

You’re always defending the UAE on this forum which is understandable. But I’m sure you would not have the same attitude if that happened to you in a different country.

At least in America they did not throw you in jail for a month, for violating their laws (which forbid passengers form bringing in food into the country)!

All you had to endure was waiting at the airport for 4 hrs (as you said) -- for them to verify the nature of that powdery suspicious green material, which they probably had never seen. (Probably Muloukhia! Right!!l!!????)

What happened to these Canadians is absolutely outrageous!!!

That's not what you do to your visitors if you want to develop your tourism sector!!

arniegang wrote:This story is not the full story i suspect.

Anyone with more than 3 brain cells could look on the internet to decide if this drug contains illegal or banned UAE substances.

They could have looked the drug up at the Airport, one assumes they have internet access or was it a case of Estisucks a lot having a bad day that day?

I found it in 30 secs on Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrex

Why the Canadian Consulate couldn't lodge a complaint and show the drug evidence/properties in the first 24 hours and demanding "bail" staggers me.

If this story was published outside the UAE, I might not have believed it!

Usually local publications would not print negative stories about the local government agencies, and if they do, I’m sure they check their facts thoroughly, in order not to get in trouble -- esp. with a such an outrageous treatment of visitors.... (and knowing how keen Dubai is to develop tourism!!)