International Law

High Times at Narita

By Stan

And now for something completely different. Meet me after the excerpt:

A passenger who landed at Tokyo’s Narita airport over the weekend has ended up with a surprise souvenir courtesy of customs officials — a package of cannabis.

Sniffer dogs failed to find the cannabis after it had been slipped into a passenger’s bag.
A customs official hid the package in a suitcase belonging to a passenger arriving from Hong Kong as part of an exercise for sniffer dogs on Sunday, Reuters.com reported. However, staff then lost track of the drugs and suitcase during the exercise, a spokeswoman for Tokyo customs said.

Customs regulations specify that a training suitcase be used for such exercises, but the official had used passengers’ suitcases for similar purposes in the past, domestic media reported.

Tokyo customs has asked anyone who finds the package to return it.

Now imagine that the person carrying around drugs without knowing it gets stopped by the cops and undergoes a very difficult "interview" trying to explain their situation. Very traumatic. Legally actionable, one might argue.

On the other hand, whatever emotional distress this person suffers could easily be remedied by all that weed he/she is carrying around - it’s been known to mellow one out. In my professional opinion, this one could go either way.

Note: This story didn’t fit in any of my categories, so I stuck it in "International Trade". Close enough.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on May 27, 2008 (boomark / email).