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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to hope the Foreign Office don't waste any time on Laura Plummer...

684 replies

PiffleandWiffle · 26/12/2017 22:09

She was stupid enough to smuggle drugs into a country against their laws, got caught & got sentenced.

BBC Link

Cue the predictable wailing & cries of "it's not fair" from the family!

Personally, I'd rather the Foreign Office spent it's time trying to help people who are genuinely in trouble abroad rather than idiots drug smugglers....

OP posts:
LarkDescending · 28/12/2017 18:59

Mrsmadevans are "they" (FCO?) sending staff back and forth to deal with it? Usually this sort of thing would be covered by consular staff already out there.

Graphista · 28/12/2017 19:00

Venal issues don't only occur in intravenous drug users. More likely in them but not just them. Can occur due to a number of other addiction health issues. But tramadol is injected by some addicts anyway. Mixed with other drugs too, addicts will try all sorts to get their high. They can be desperate.

The street price of £23 was the family of LP claiming that, they were wrong. Various sources have given a number of different prices mostly way more than they claimed. As I said I know for a fact where I live it would be easy to get £30-40 per 50mg tablet. Not a wealthy area but lots of addiction issues.

TheRottweiler · 28/12/2017 19:01

Hadron

But you obviously wouldn't disguise them and could prove that they were YOUR prescription.

So this scenario does NOT apply to you. Does it.

Mrsmadevans · 28/12/2017 19:03

Lark I don't know if they are shipping staff back and forth but tbh nothing would surprise me . I am expecting the worst.

TheRottweiler · 28/12/2017 19:04

Sukidog

Wow. 28 would last me 3 days.

My prescription is for 240 a month. To last me 30 days.

Springprim · 28/12/2017 19:09

I think yabu. She has done something very silly & now she is paying the price. Most people make mistakes, hers has unfortunately ended with in this catastrophe. I hope she gets all the help she can.

HadronCollider · 28/12/2017 19:09

Guess not Rottweiler

I still feel for her however. She is either very naive, or 'controlled' by her boyfriend. I don't know her history but it sounds to me like she was very trusting of the boyfriend who may have played down the seriousness of what she was doing.

In any case I do not take glee in the thought of any woman being out in a Jail where standards may be inhuman or indecent.

Debbie73 · 28/12/2017 19:10

I hope they don’t give this anymore airtime if people are stupid enough to mess about in a strict Islamic country like Egypt then expect harsh consequences , they not all soft like UK . Tramadol is in the same family as morphine , and in those quantities it’s serious stuff. People can die overdosing and getting hooked on prescription painkillers , think Michael Jackson .

HadronCollider · 28/12/2017 19:10

Put in jail.

TooManyPaws · 28/12/2017 19:13

Colleague had huge excess to donate due to a repeat NHS prescription they didn't use.

I have repeat prescriptions for a whole set of drugs, including diazepam which is also listed as Class C. I have to ask for the repeat prescription for all of them and the dates I do are recorded. If I was not using a drug, I would still have to ask for it in order to build up a 'huge excess'.

TammySwansonTwo · 28/12/2017 19:16

As many posters have explained, it's not uncommon to be prescribed it in larger quantities if you have a longterm condition. If you've had an acute injury or surgery, you may well only be prescribed 28 capsules. If you have a longterm condition and take 8 a day, you'd be requesting and signing for scripts every 2-3 days. People would be amazed at the quantity of morphine I used to get each month before my pregnancy, for many years. When you have a patient with severe chronic pain, you have to manage it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if many people in this country who've come off opioids or opiates have a reasonable stash, perhaps when they've changed meds - years ago I was switched from OxyContin to morphine when I reacted badly to the former within 48 hours of starting it, and I recently found a large supply of oxycodone and oxynorm in the back of my cupboard as they'd given me a months supply and I have a very high tolerance. Totally forgot they existed and returned them to the pharmacy (people talk about street value but even if I wanted to sell old meds, which I would NEVER do, I wouldn't have the first clue how to do so!)

It's absolutely conceivable you could have that many. I haven't needed tramadol in addition to mymorphine like I used to in ages, but I still have a box of 100 in the cupboard in case I do need it in an emergency - why wouldn't I keep it, it's not like I can't take it any more, I just haven't needed to since I got my tolerance down.

IrishNinja · 28/12/2017 19:16

It wouldn't be massively difficult to get that many. I'm prescribed 200 a month and if I have a good month I can have a get 5 - 6 weeks out of them. If I was less scrupulous I could really sell those on. I've had people ask. However no fecker gets their hands on my tramadol! Seriously though this might be bad for her family but handy for me. Work will take me that way soon and I had no idea they were illegal there.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 28/12/2017 19:21

Colleague had huge excess to donate due to a repeat NHS prescription they didn't use

Then he should have returned them to a pharmacy. He committed an offence under UK law when he passed them on to her.

HadronCollider · 28/12/2017 19:23

Precisely Irish No way would I think Jail was a potentially consequence of carrying a couple hundred Tram. I guess I can take from this thread that not every legally prescribed drug here is legal elsewhere. I think the BBC had a list of other everyday drugs that are also banned in other countries. Some of them I just would never consider. I think some include cough medicines!

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 28/12/2017 19:25

I’d wonder how she got all those pills tbh.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 28/12/2017 19:30

Precisely Irish No way would I think Jail was a potentially consequence of carrying a couple hundred Tram. I guess I can take from this thread that not every legally prescribed drug here is legal elsewhere

Her possession of Tramadol was not legal in the UK. Tramadol is only legal for the person to whom it is prescribed.

She would have been committing a criminal offence if she had come into the UK in the same circumstances.

Liketoshop · 28/12/2017 19:32

Tramadol has become commonly used analgesia. It was an extreme drug of choice and has many side effects. Morbidly high BMI can mean higher doses of pain killers to get any relief and that weight contributes to exacerbating MSK pain.

Purplealienpuke · 28/12/2017 19:36

I get 100 every 25 days & I sign for them. No way would I hand them over! I know I have to take a prescription for all my prescription drugs when I travel abroad.
She's definitely an idiot. She should pay for her own legal fees etc. Not sure the person who supplied them should get off either!!!!

FreeNiki · 28/12/2017 19:38

I think it would be quite nice if they could arrange for her to serve her sentence in a British jail so she could see her family.

Why should the British tax payer pay for her sorry arse to sit in a British prison?

ButchyRestingFace · 28/12/2017 19:39

Precisely Irish No way would I think Jail was a potentially consequence of carrying a couple hundred Tram.

You wouldn’t have thought jail was a possibility for possession (with intent to supply) of a “few hundred” of a controlled drug for which you had no prescription in an Islamic country?

Blimey.

manicmij · 28/12/2017 19:46

YANBU. Seems she has been treated lightly given the country involved. No way was she not aware of legality taking an enourgmous amount of drugs into country. Would probably be charged if caught bringing that amount into UK. Play with fire, you get burned!

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 28/12/2017 19:49

Would probably be charged if caught bringing that amount into UK

Yes , she would if they weren't prescribed for her.

Curtainshopping · 28/12/2017 19:57

But for all of you who are prescribed 200 a month or whatever - they are prescribed for YOU for your medical condition because you need them. This person had no such condition and had not been prescribed them so should not have been in possession of them in the U.K, let alone taking them abroad.

Realjournal123 · 28/12/2017 20:16

She knew exactly what she was doing. Why should we feel sorry for her. If she hadn't been caught, she would be stealing again from our NHS for her upcoming future visit and so it would go on.
I do believe however that she was doing it for him, not for her own gain, and she knew exactly what he was doing with them- selling them on with a street value of £10 each.

smilingontheinside · 28/12/2017 20:28

My son was prescribed tramadol for back injury. He had some left over and took them to chemist to destroy and had to sign a book giving his details etc as they are a controlled drug. IMO she did more than something "silly" as some posters have commented she's an adult and was probably more than aware that taking that amount of controlled drugs abroad is a serious error of judgement. No sympathy from me and definitely non of my tax to pay a sentence in UK. Yanbu

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