British Woman Sentenced to Life in Laos Drug Court
June 4th, 2009 by RussThe tendrils of US drug enforcement reach across borders, over oceans, and even into the legal affairs of foreign nations. When British national, Samantha Orabator was caught concealing a pound and a half of heroin in a Laotian airport last August, her life was nearly forfeited because of a US campaign to toughen drug standards in Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle.’
Only spared execution because she was pregnant, this week’s ruling by a Laotian court imposed the second most stringent possible sentence, life imprisonment. In other words, posession of a pound and a half of a particular opiate extract, nearly cut short the life of a 20-year old girl. Rapists, murderers, and war criminals seem to have better odds of parole in certain parts of the world, than those attempting to profit from unsanctioned substances.
One could chalk up this legal disparity to the oddities of a foreign, facist culture. In actuality, much of the motivation for Laos’ draconian drug policy comes in the form of US dollars. In 1993, Laos was ‘certified for narcotics cooperation ‘ with the US State Department. In return for showing erradication of opium crops and increasing crackdowns on drug trafficking, Laotian officials received training from American drug police as well as millions of dollars to fund the ramping up of their anti-narcotics operations.
In other words, if the Laotian government showed leniency to those convicted of non-violent drug crimes, they could lose an important source of foreign aid.
Meanwhile, the United States drives the demand for about a quarter of the world’s consumed heroin. Instead of acting to reduce demand internally, it has strong-armed, threatened, or outright bribed other nations to impose disastrously incongruous and disproportionate laws that have destroyed tens of millions of lives.
