If you buy cannabis you are an accessory to the modern-day slave trade that caused the death of the 39 in the shipping container

[Parsimon]

I hate the fact that so many people in this country blissfully ignore the human misery behind the drugs they consume, whether it’s working class kids being stabbed because of their involvement with the gangs that supply cocaine to middle-class dinner parties or the “just a spliff” crowd who are fuelling modern slavery from predominantly Vietnamese trafficked immigrants, often children.

If you grow your own and trace to source everything else then you’re only harming yourself, but I expect that the vast majority of drugs users don’t actually do that.

Excellent article in the Guardian today about the children having to work to support UK cannabis consumption.

amp.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/25/trafficked-enslaved-teenagers-tending-uk-cannabis-farms-vietnamese/

Clicky link amp.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/25/trafficked-enslaved-teenagers-tending-uk-cannabis-farms-vietnamese/

Do we know it was drug related? Because the Chinese people locally think it’s more likely to be nail bar related - that tends to be the biggest reason for UK centric people smuggling / modern slavery related to East Asians. We need to avoid nail bars.

The nail bars - particularly the cash only ones - are used to launder the money from the cannabis and sex work. It’s utterly grim.

Get a grip.
You absolute sensationalist.

Are the nail bars are a front for something else. It doesnt make sense that the uk has such a demand for nails that thousands are trafficked here to do nails.

Do you use drugs by any chance, @PlainJane74?

Er no. Most nail bars are just plain nail bars using slaves because that’s the only way to make a profit with them. It’s the nail bar / beautician industry that sucks and in most cases it’s a seperate issue to drugs.

I dont do my nails so how much do people pay and how long does it take. Does the industry need regulating. I know there are concerns about the chemicals

Lots of middle class people on here would probably like to hide their heads in the sand. If you don’t like them onions, how about the fact that over 90% of cocaine is heavily contaminated with faeces because it comes into the country stuffed up someone’s arse?

I was watching one of those shows where camers follow the police and they arrested a young Asian boy at a flat being used as a cannabis farm, he said he was 17 but spoke no other English. The officer explained to the cameras that these young people are brought over here and set up living alone in flats/houses where their sole job is to farm the plants, someone will drop food off for them once a week, and they never leave the property then when the police come knocking its these kids who get arrested. It showed where he'd been sleeping, a single mattress on the floor, and his food was packets of instant noodles.

I've heard before that nail bars are used to launder the money made from drugs and prostitution.

@BillywilliamV it’s amazing what a nice bit of packaging and a well-spoken dealer will make people gloss over.

That Guardian article is horrific, those poor children.

Nail bars are a way to get off grid illegals. People are ‘contracted’ to work for free to pay off the debt incurred coming to the UK. Afterwards these people will go off-grid and work for cash / set up their own illegal nail bars and their profits will be laundered through legal ones / report themselves to immigration for a free trip back. The funds to buy these people usually come from fraud, smuggling (not usually of illegal drugs / sex, as the penalities of being caught in east asia are too high, but usually prescription drugs or specialist food products).

The links to sex work and drugs are more pertinent for the nail bar industries in Europe (particularly Amsterdam).

I dont do my nails so how much do people pay and how long does it take

The hair salon I go to charges £20 for a hand massage followed by a manicure, shape and polish then more for gels, acrylics, wraps, etc. I'd guess the nail bars are similar prices? The £20 package takes around thirty minutes.

Nail bars are terrible places and it really worries me. I won't use one for the reasons given. It's not difficult to find someone independent

I 100% agree, OP.

I work with children in care. There are so many vulnerable children and teenagers being groomed and exploited by the drugs trade. It ruins lives.

Really stupid question, sorry, but most of the poor people in the lorry were men - do men work in nail bars?
(Never been to one.)

Janice Turner has written about this in the Times today too.

OP - YANBU.

Yes men do work in nail bars.

Yes, men work in nail bars @TheCountessofFitzdotterl. There are 2 Vietnamese-owned nail bars in my small suburb alone, and both are staffed mainly by men.

Yes men work there! It's about 50:50 round here.

Thanks, Mrsspensergregson.

Couldn’t agree more Parsimon

I would love for anyone here who uses cannabis or cocaine to see where it came from, and the links to organised crime and human trafficking, because anyone with a shred of decency would stay the hell away once they’ve understood how the drug trade works.

The UK is a big exporter of medical cannabis.
It isn't just slavers that are making money it is our political elite.
Countries that are legal are seeing big drops in supply crime.
We should legalise in the UK.

Every time there's a cannabis farm 'bust', the people arrested are nearly always Vietnamese.