I remember reading a book titled “forget you had a daughter” earlier this year about a British lady who got caught smuggling drugs out of Thailand. I’ve just discovered that her story has been made into a documentary as part of a series in the UK called “Banged Up Abroad”, which I’ve included here via YouTube.
This is not the only book or story I have read about foreigners getting caught up in drugs, especially smuggling drugs in and out of Thailand. I know a lot of people think they should get everything thrown at them but I generally feel sorry for them. To do something so stupid in the first place, one has got to be pretty low on life. We all make mistakes, and most of the time we get the opportunity to sort them out but for these guys, their well and truly fucked.
There is a 17 year old English guy serving 25 years for smuggling a few pills into Thailand… 25 years! A young guy who made a huge mistake and has now got to pay 25 years of his life for it. That’s to much to pay for a mistake in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, those who do wrong should be punished otherwise the world would be a far crazier place than it is now – but Thailand, along with a select few other countries in the world, go way over the top.
What do you think?
Mixed feelings… those who gamble on making a quick buck in this way know the risks – or they should. Yes we all make mistakes – but we wouldn’t all make this particular one. At least, not if we’ve got any sense. Does the punishment fit the crime? Probably not, from a Western perspective. But those in the East might see that as an extension of our Western patronising, quasi-colonialist approach to world issues (and we’ve seen what this ‘we know best’ attitude has done to America’s standing in the world, particularly over the past 8 years).
Whose country is it anyway? We’re guests here. Just as we should respect the culture and its people, we have to respect its laws as well, even if we find some of them distasteful or even unjust in different ways. So we can respectfully suggest alternatives – but not break them in the meantime. And the bottom line is that most offenders, in full knowledge of the possible consequences, broke those rules.
That said there are genuine examples of manipulation of quite probably innocent individuals, and clemency should be shown to those concerned, imo.
poor thing happened to an australian lady name Schapelle Leigh Corby, imprisoned in my country Indonesia for drug smuggling.
truly sad that she has got 20 years sentence for importation of marijuana into bali.
for me privately, life is too short to do such a stupid thing like smuggling drugs.
*i preferred smuggling some diet pills
=D
Schapelle is guilty as sin.
Pete Garwood had some really great stuff to say. Thanks Pete. Now my 2 cents…
It looks like she learned a very valuable lesson. Unfortunately desperation can cloud one’s judgment and blind you to better alternatives. She was very naive and unwise to the way some people can work. She even assumed that should they get caught, her two train partners would own up to their parts.
Of course, naivety and desperation are no excuse for committing a crime. She well knew the crime she was committing. She wanted easy money and paid a serious price for it. Thailand doesn’t work like the West. Neither do their jails like London’s. I think the death penalty/life is way over the top. But this is Thailand. This isn’t USA (my country) nor UK.
I think it was good the Thai King granted her a pardon. If you read up on him, it’s not 100% surprising that he did. She had gotten alot of media attention and I think he figured that she wasn’t a career criminal and learned her lesson.
She says she would turn back the clock if she could… She doesn’t understand that she’s got her newfound maturity and understanding of human nature BECAUSE of her experience. So she didn’t smuggle it for this guy… She could’ve ended up doing the same thing for someone else down the road. Or maybe she’d get involved in some other shady deal.
As one poster said here, not all of us would make a mistake like her’s. A sensible statement. The problem is you’re never quite sure what you would’ve done until you are in that desperate “i feel unable to escape” situation. Yeah many people in that situation still wouldn’t do it. A good thing but many others would. Nevertheless, she had no real excuse for what happened. She played victim mentality when she talked about how unfair it was she got stiffed and the guy got let go. Unfortunately when you partake in illegal activity, you deal with shady characters. You’re making a terrible decision. And shady characters don’t tend to live life with honor. The responsibility is ultimately your’s, because YOU CHOSE to go along with it.
All in all an excellent documentary. It’s never worth it to take such a gamble on your life. And when you’re in a foreign land, you don’t have the rights and protections of your home country. It’s their country, their laws.
Very interesting documentary and a nice find. I’m just wondering if revenge ever crossed her min when she was released in Britain.
I read this book a long time ago, I bought it in Thailand when I had nothing else to read.
I think it’s a very touching story and how she suffer is really inspirering. Some people think prison is really easy and when they’re free they haven’t changes a bit. But this Sandra really did. And I think it sure is good she did!