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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:
PersianCatLady · 27/12/2017 09:53

I thought that online pharmacies in the UK are not allowed to prescribe controlled drugs??

Lunde · 27/12/2017 09:54

Lots of people on here don't seem to know about private prescriptions. Go online, answer a few questions. Bingo. Private prescription. Not illegal. Not even legally dodgy.

I don't know what your point is? This is not her defence. She did not have any type of prescription. She says a friend "gave" them to her or she bought them on the black market from a drug dealer

ohfortuna · 27/12/2017 09:57

I do feel for the family
whatever she's done however stupid she's been they will still be suffering knowing that she is facing years in an Egyptian jail
they will be imagining all kinds of Horrors, wondering what the long-term effects of this will be on their daughter their sister

To those saying they have no sympathy she got what she deserved try and imagine how you would feel if this was your child

londonista · 27/12/2017 10:02

FirstmrsDV

I completely agree!!

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 10:02

But I cannot imagine being so full of spite that I would start a thread like this about a person with a family going through a terrible trauma.

Presumably most families of people convicted and sent to prison - here and abroad - for all manner of crimes go through trauma?

Should we not discuss the cases?

In this particular case, the family are giving press interviews and trying to drum up favourable publicity so I think people are perfectly entitled to say “actually, naw...”

From a selfish pov, I’ve found the discussion quite instructive because I’ve been merrily schkelping through foreign airports for years giving nary a thought to what’s in my travelling medicine cabinet.

The discussion on the thread has certainly given me pause.

ohfortuna · 27/12/2017 10:03

Imagine your daughter behind bars in a foreign country
Only able to communicate by letters which take ages to reach you
And if you visit you can only see them behind bars for one hour

londonista · 27/12/2017 10:06

OhFortuna

I wouldn’t say I knew what I was doing. I have been to Japan many many times but the first time I bought the boxes in for him, I just assumed they’d take them off me if I wasn’t allowed to bring them in, but they often don’t look. I’d never try to disguise or hide them or lie about what they were or how they got there. In Australia most luggage is xrayed before you’re allowed to leave with it, so they’d definitely find a large stash of pills and I’m sure you’d be charged if you brought in 300 sudafeds.

SandyDenny · 27/12/2017 10:08

and while she's doing her 3 years, plenty of time to write the book

I've seen photos online of the horrific conditions in the prison she's in, there's no way she'd be writing anything, staying alive and sane will take her all her time.

Thsi thread is highlighting more things I didn't know, I posted above about not having heard of tramadol, I also have no clue about the rules in Muslim countries about opiates and I'm pretty sure that in general this kind of stuff isn't widely known.

I'm not saying I would have taken any drugs anywhere but I'm aware that the demographic on MN and on this thead in particular is not at all represenative of the population as a whole, many many young girls could find themselves in the same situation through love or ignorance or even being promised payment.People make bad decisions all the time.

I have no problem with people being found guilty of crimes in other countries but I do feel sorry for the conditions they find themselves in. The comparisons with foreigners serving in UK prisons isn't fair imo as the conditions here are nothing like those in some prisons around the world

Billben · 27/12/2017 10:08

I hope she's allowed to do her sentence in the UK.

Why should the british taxpayer pay for her prison stay? It wasn’t even a British law that she has broken

MsHarry · 27/12/2017 10:08

Just how did she get that amount?? You can't buy more than 2 packets of paracetamol! Surely you can get other painkillers in Eqypt?

londonista · 27/12/2017 10:08

Having sympathy for her and her family doesn’t mean you can’t also think she did wrong.

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 10:11

Why should the british taxpayer pay for her prison stay? It wasn’t even a British law that she has broken

It would appear she has broken UK law. But obviously hasn’t been charged/convicted of any offence here yet as she’s a bit busy elsewhere.

Elendon · 27/12/2017 10:11

She's not a young girl though, she is a woman of 33. If she was 16 I may have more sympathy - as it is I do wish her no further harm. And previous posters have said they go to countries with a medicine chest in their luggage and they are not young girls either.

The prison conditions are not favourable and it must be horrendous for her. A very tough lesson to be learnt.

PersianCatLady · 27/12/2017 10:14

The kind of drugs being talked about here are CONTROLLED DRUGS, the ones where you sign the back of the prescription twice and usually come from the licked cabinet inside the pharmacy.

Sudafed are a problem in countries with methamphetamine concerns such as Australia.

Opiates which are usually CDs but can also include co-codamol are a problem in Middle Eastern countries.

Things like ibuprofen, paracetamol, heart meds, statins, etc are not normally of any concern but always take a copy of your prescription just in charge.

ohfortuna · 27/12/2017 10:15

The person who put her up to this would have been far more aware of the risks than she was
He was prepared to throw her under the bus so that he could get what he wanted

LadyPenelope68 · 27/12/2017 10:17

YANBU
She knowingly took a large amount of controlled drugs into a country where it’s illegal, she got caught, she does the time. End of. Why should tax payers money be spent on bringing her back to the UK just so she can see her family regularly. They’ll have to fork out to go see her over there.

Needmoresleep · 27/12/2017 10:17

On the bright side, she has now learned that her "husband" has other wives and her marriage certificate is not worth the paper it is written on. How much worse if she had gone to live there, had children, and then discovered that things were not as she had believed.

SandyDenny · 27/12/2017 10:17

Age is no bar to stupidily with these love rats, you only need to look at the number of 50 plus year old women taken in by and marrying young foreign men who are only after their money or a visa. Anyone can be blinded by a smooth talking conman as it seems the man in this case is

ohfortuna · 27/12/2017 10:17

It is punishment enough to have your Liberty taken away for three years never mind having to suffer the conditions in an Egyptian prison

PersianCatLady · 27/12/2017 10:19

This "husband" is a disgusting man.

I notice that he hasn't stepped up and admitted any part in this.

I don't believe that LP did this without persuasion from him but I still believe that she has to serve her sentence as she committed the crime.

PersianCatLady · 27/12/2017 10:20

Bloody hell, locked not licked

brizzledrizzle · 27/12/2017 10:21

It is punishment enough to have your Liberty taken away for three years never mind having to suffer the conditions in an Egyptian prison

tough, she committed the crime and she knew the risks.

TheFirstMrsDV · 27/12/2017 10:21

Should we not discuss the cases?
You misunderstand.
Nothing wrong with discussing
The thread title is spiteful and uncessessary.

SandyDenny · 27/12/2017 10:28

tough, she committed the crime and she knew the risks

Do you know her brizzledrizzle? I very much suspect she had no idea about the risks but obviously if you know her I'll take your word for it but that would mean she'd discussed it with you beforehand, did you try to stop her?

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 10:28

Bloody hell, locked not licked

Do you know, I read that and thought, ”is this some new biometric ID that uses the tongue?” Grin