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?

Everyone saying at least child labour isn't involved, it was in a 'clean' lab, it's better than cocaine or heroin etc have absolutely no idea

The chemicals used to make drugs are just as toxic, even more so, than the drugs themselves

There are watchlists for these chemicals, meaning they've probably used criminal means, including theft and fraud to accumulate both the equipment and chemicals needed to make this shit

Everyone's idea of a pristine labour, is wrong

These set ups are in barns, industrial estates, storage units and garages and there isn't fune cupboard in sight

The criminals forced to work in the labs, are working with minimal PPE and are more than likely some sort of slave labour, like the guys maintaining cannabis farms

This absolutely is NOT a better drug to take

I’m glad they got the sentences they did. The ringleaders often get away with crimes like this.

it’s not just the drugs, it’s the illegal activities around them.

Also, think of the tax

If you don't want to do the time don't do the crime! It's not a few Es either is it?

Nope.

again. MDMA affects your body’s ability to maintain it’s electrolyte balance.

yes she drank too much water. But the MDMA will prevent her body dealing with the large quantity of water, her kidneys won’t work properly, contributing to the death from water intoxication.

bottom line, if she hadn’t taken mdma she wouldn’t have died.

Sorry but this an anti-drugs propaganda peddled by the media to convince people like yourself that drugs are evil and dangerous blah blah blah. They are not. The lack of regulation, by having them sold via the black market, is what makes them dangerous.

To date, there have been NO STUDIES that have proven ecstacy, or MDMA, to be dangerous or life-threatening. It is perfectly safe to take, it is far safer to consume than alcohol, and should, in my view, be legal and regulated.

But of course it won't be, because of ignorant people like yourself, who seem to think you know everything about this issue already.

I was at the funeral a few weeks ago of a 21 year old male who died as a direct result of taking these drugs. Whatever punishment those who sell them gets will never be enough. The long term effects of taking these drugs are still not known

I don't know about this case and didn't watch the programme but were they sentenced in Australia? If so, I believe the law is stricter and (I imagine) they have much more prison space. I don't think I'm alone in thinking the UK sentencing for felons in general is pathetic but I do realise the prisons are full to bursting. Either way, the men in question are hardly pillars of society and I would've thought there were better causes to get worked up about.

It's embarrassing that you would write this. Really, it is.

Leah Betts didn't die from the water, she died from the combination of ecstasy and water. The toxicologist said if she's just drunk the water alone she would have survived.
I couldn't care less that they got 28 years tbh, but you can always tell the people that take drugs on these threads from how ultra defensive they are.

Well done. You googled and repeated it here

Bollocks.

search the medical literature. There’s a shit ton of studies showing MDMA causes harm, including death.

try pubmed to start. “Educate yourself” is a phrase I hate but in this case not going to do it for you. The information is easily available, you just choose not to look for it.

Well, as those stupid fuckers FAFOed, imported alcohol is fine, and imported MDMA really isn’t.

No actually.

just someone who worked on a&e and as a research nurse for too many years seeing the effects of these drugs and teaching courses on those effects.

Alcohol causes way more problems I admit. But that does not mean recreational drugs aren’t harmful.

I don’t think this is a big deal really. It’s like how armed robbery has “excessive” sentencing- even if you didn’t use the gun, even if the gun wasn’t loaded, even if the gun was a replica. It’s to send a message that you may as well not bother touching the gun, because you will be sentenced as though you used it. Plenty of armed robbers are in prison close to life sentences. Certainly makes someone think twice about taking a fake gun to scare the post master, it’s just not worth it.

same theme for drug dealers. It doesn’t stop all of them, of course, but you can’t lower your standards

The long sentences might make other people to think about not dealing drugs.