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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not feel any sympathy for drug-smuggling women?

592 replies

DarceyBissell · 12/08/2013 17:42

Just that really. Two young women facing 25 years in a Peruvian jail for trying to smuggle 11kg of cocaine. Saw they described as 'vulnerable' in one paper. Hardly. Greedy and stupid though.

OP posts:
sweetestcup · 13/08/2013 19:39

Sick of people making excuses for them based on their age really - would this apply to other crimes to such as armed robbery, rape, or murder? No I dont think so, so what makes drug smuggling so different.

masirah · 13/08/2013 19:42

Sunnyintervals - Give over! 25 years as a minimum for this offence is not enough! So young? You are having a laugh, these two were in Ibiza and probably saw the effects of drug taking EVERY DAY so they knew what misery they were instrument in peddling.

Oh, and pass me that builders skip of aggregate.

sweetestcup · 13/08/2013 19:45

Im a bit puzzled as to why they are claiming they didnt know what was in the numerous packages they were caught with at the same time claiming they were forced to do it - come on, what did they think they were smuggling!!!

theyoniwayisnorthwards · 13/08/2013 19:46

They are 19 and 20 if I'm not mistaken? Yes, I think it's very unreasonable not to have sympathy for two girls barely out of their teens who made catastrophic decisions and destroyed their lives.

Doesn't mean I think what they did, if deliberate, isn't awful.

edam · 13/08/2013 19:49

surely you can feel someone who is in terrible trouble, even if it's a result of their own stupidity?

I do feel sorry for them. If they are guilty, they did a massively stupid thing with enormous risks. And they face very harsh treatment - longer in prison than they've been alive, and in very bad conditions indeed. Far more easily caught than the leaders of the drug cartels and far more likely to suffer the consequences.

I hope they get a fair trial. And I hope they get human treatment. And I hope politicians all over the world wake up and stop pursuing a pointless 'war on drugs' that just causes misery. Legalise and regulate the ruddy things, take the criminality out of it.

edam · 13/08/2013 19:51

humane, not human!

masirah · 13/08/2013 20:05

Edam, imagine this.....

Your son or daughter on holiday in Ibiza, a sizeable load of drugs suddenly becomes available on the relatively small island and is offered around the bars and clubs for an affordable price. Peer pressure ensues and your little darlings weaken through a bucket load of alcohol and end up falling out of a balcony or going for a midnight swim.

Far fetched? No just read the papers.

Now, you still feel sorry for these two?

eccentrica · 13/08/2013 20:20

masirah vastly more accidents of that kind are due to alcohol than to drugs.

alcohol is implicated in an almost unthinkable amount of violence, poisoning, sexual assault, vandalism, disease and death.

do you think that the companies which export and import alcohol should be subject to 25 yrs imprisonment and the death penalty?

if not, why not?

eccentrica · 13/08/2013 20:25

sweetest many prescription drugs are far more dangerous and the distinction between legal and illegal drugs is one of law, not biological or physical reality.

the drug that has caused me by far the most problems was Prozac, prescribed totally legally for me.

it is well known that many drugs, such as MDMA, can have very beneficial psychological effects. there are many medical professionals who want them legalised for use in e.g. counselling.

Caster8 · 13/08/2013 20:25

sweet. The difference with rape, murder and robbery is savage intent versus probable being forced or stupidity coupled with possible greed, or lack of knowledge.

TabithaStephens · 13/08/2013 20:27

Stupidity and lack of knowledge is not a defence!

Sparklingbrook · 13/08/2013 20:30

Earlier thread. Don't known if anything different is being said.

I am off to read this one in full.

sweetestcup · 13/08/2013 20:30

Ok well how about fraud then, would people here still have the same level of sympathy if they had embezzled money from.their employers? Or how about if they were middle aged men accused of smuggling drugs?

Caster8 · 13/08/2013 20:33

But they are mitigating circumstances are they not Tabitha?

Caster8 · 13/08/2013 20:34

sweet, can you not have different levels of sympathy?

TabithaStephens · 13/08/2013 20:36

I don't think so, especially as there's no way they can prove they were stupid and didn't know what they were doing.

masirah · 13/08/2013 20:39

Because alcohol is taxed by the state and the repercussions of their use is generally paid for by the state.

Abuse of alcohol is a major problem, but you try to smuggle the equivalent misery through an airport. You can't.

These two knew that smuggling this amount of drugs would cause undue misery to a LOT of people but they didn't give a shit, they just wanted the money.

I agree that alcohol abuse in the UK is unacceptable but temper that thought with the utter misery that drugs, soft and hard, cause families and realise that these two were potentially adding to it.

Accidents abroad, fatal and minor, are linked to alcohol consumption and this will always happen because the state allows the sale of alcohol but it also provides services to deal with the aftermath through taxation. Drug dealers and their mules bear no responsibility for the harm they cause.

There are NO winners in the drug/alcohol problem but silly girls like these two should not be pitied, they knew what they were doing.

eccentrica · 13/08/2013 20:45

so you must therefore be in favour of legalizing drugs so that taxes can contribute towards the costs of cleaning up the damage they cause?

and do you not consider alcohol manufacturers and distributors to be morally culpable?

masirah · 13/08/2013 20:48

Yes. If it can be made workable.

No.

TSSDNCOP · 13/08/2013 20:51

I think it is a tragedy that they have blown away the best years of their lives. Their parents must be distraught. I hope they will at least be treated humanely in Peru as opposed to Thailand.

BUT if they had been successful in smuggling that quantity of drugs it would have caused untold misery with lots of kids fucked up and lots of parents distraught.

These two are stupid, but they're expendable to the people pulling the strings who must have a certain % write off in their consignments. That's the really scary part.

sweetestcup · 13/08/2013 20:53

caster for drug smugglers do you mean? In that case no I don't, its well known how high risk this is but the lure of a free holiday and a wad of cash means there will always be others like these two. And these are the ones that get caught....imagine the ones that get away with it.

Lavidaenrosa · 13/08/2013 21:03

White woman in danger syndrome here.

TarkaTheOtter · 13/08/2013 21:05

Glad to be considered a "bleeding heart leftie" by some on this thread.

I also couldn't give a flying fuck if they were greedy or coerced, it's a heavy price to pay. It's not about age, I'd feel sympathy for them if they were 40.

AND I have sympathy for drug addicts too and those affected by their addiction.

eccentrica · 13/08/2013 21:14

masirah why do you think those who push booze are not morally culpable for the consequences, but those who push drugs are?

VivaLeBeaver · 13/08/2013 21:24

So they were captured at gunpoint?

Had no idea at all that drugs were in the bags they were forced at gunpoint to carry?

Didn't feel the need to find police/askfor help/dump bags at the airport?

Either trotted off to Peru on a week's holiday from Ibiza where they were meant to be working or were kidnnapped in Ibiza and taken to Peru but again didn't ask for help on the plane on the way there. I'm hazy as to which of these 2 possibilities they're claiming.

It all sounds so plausible. Hmm