28 years for shipping Es? Bit much isn't it?

[Wareart]

I've just been watching that Channel 4 Encrochat programme about the old boys getting busted trying to smuggle ecstasy to Australia and the sentences they got were insane. They weren't violent, plotting to install their rivals in a torture chamber (!) or ordering their opponents' family members get shot/burned with acid in the eyes (!) like the rest of the sociopaths featured in this series.

They were just shipping party drugs to meet demand and by the looks of them it was one last blast and retire to the Costa del sol or somewhere with their millions, not negatively impacting me or anyone else with their shenanigans, no threat to anything. So wtf is the story with the sentencing?

You do know the harm these drugs do and the people they kill ? They might “just” be a party drug but they also take peoples lives .

Well they don't. This isn't crystal meth here. It isn't even cocaine.

They don’t what?

mdma does kill.

it negatively affects the people it kills and their families.

This.

I have no sympathy for anyone knowingly involved in illegal drug production or dealing. And think people who take illegal drugs are morally corrupt.

Leah Betts ? She died from one E tablet im sure there’s plenty more .

Drugs are drugs …
my partner and now my Cousin recently died from being drug addicts … personally I hope all the scumbags who sell drugs end up in prison …

Leah Betts God rest her soul died from drinking too much water. Probably due to panicking about patchy misinformation around Ecstasy. She made her brain swell because she downed litres and litres of water. It was the water that killed the poor girl, not the drug.

would she have drunk all that water had she not taken ecstasy? No…

It’s too late at night (or early in the morning !) for this shit …

You can’t argue with stupid is the saying …

I agree with you OP. The sentencing is disproportionate.

The main risk with MDMA is that it is not MDMA - ketamine is far more readily available and dangerous.

Well that's where it gets a bit "house that jack built" isn't it. She drank the water because she had a false notion about dehydration. She had a false notion about dehydration because she'd misremembered patchy information about ecstasy. She had patchy information about ecstasy because she lived in a time and place when the attitude to even fairly benign substances classed as illegal was "you mustn't take this and if you do you're probably going to die and so fuck you because you likely deserve it".

I have never or would never take any form of drug but it’s time the world took drugs more seriously and the punishments were more harsher .
Drug dealers are getting rich off the backs of vulnerable ppl a lot of the time ,

Just because we're used to relatively lenient sentences, doesn't mean other countries will follow suit

Class A (or equivalent) drug smuggling warrants the death penalty in some countries

Were they sentenced here or in Australia?

Right?

The guy who literally built a torture chamber, like it actually existed, and he was all set to put his rival in it and rape him to death - he got 33 months.

I mean this is a dangerous horrible nasty guy. Clearly you would be uncomfortable about walking down the same street as him . He got 33 months! Guys like him get to go out and about after short sentences, despite being not fit to be around decent human society. But then guys like the old men with the ecstasy, using Encrochat to bitch about how they're bored with watching homes under the hammer and walking their dogs in lockdown, really these were quite mild people apart from the drugs, which no one has to buy, they're locked up for the rest of their lives.

No. And 'it's not harming anyone/is just shenanigans' is ridiculous.

effects @Wareart, numpty

Horse riding is more dangerous than ecstasy for an individual.
Alcohol is much more damaging to society as a whole.
I agree with you OP. If it was cocaine or heroin that would be different.

Oh absolutely cocaine or heroin I agree. But club accessories, produced in a lab in the UK, no kiddies in Colombia or Afghanistan killed in turf wars/forced into production, clearly destined for a willing non addicted and fully cognisant market? 28 years for that is truly harsh.

I've been to the funeral of a friends killed by MDNA. How fucking idiotic to say they don't kill.

Wel, I'm Australian & have two DC, one rapidly reaching the age where drug experimentation happens. I say throw away the key & make it unattractive to import drugs here. Our sentencing is too soft to deter them, prices high, drugs are everywhere. Especially our small towns. It's so bad it's called an epidemic by those trying to stop it.

Party drugs are not harmless. They're an introduction. My best friend in high school was offered 'party' drugs. Then heroin. Dropped out of school & eventually went to prison for a violent crime, stealing to buy drugs. Lost her kids, both born addicted. She had big dreams, a lot of promise, and a loving family (I spent a lot of time there). I remember her telling me all the details, and there was a lot of regret, and things beyond horrible, that I wish I'd never known. I eventually lost touch but discovered she passed away recently. I cried because if she'd not been offered party drugs like harmless lollies, she might have had a different life.

My DC are well educated about the effects of drugs and not bowing to pressure to take them. I know they'll be offered as they're just so easy to get.

They should throw away the key for anyone dealing/smuggling in drugs. It wrecks countless lives and it's ridiculous to think otherwise.

does seem harsh, especially as prolific paedo’s get a slap on the wrist most of the time.

It seems a long sentence when you compare other crimes & sentencing, but if it deters others then good. Perhaps we should use this sentence as a guideline for other crimes now.
They may not be distributing heroin or crack, but what they did is still illegal & some people will die using the drugs they’re importing.I doubt they ever gave one thought to those people when raking in & spending the drug money, maybe 28 years will give them time to reflect on the harm they did.

No. It was the drug.

mdma affects your water/electrolyte balance. It impairs your body’s ability to maintain homeostasis.

yes she drank too much water, but the MDMA will have contributed to her inability to recover from it.