I don't know why I'm asking in this forum, other than there are probably some cops and lawyers here who might know the answer. (If you know the answer and you're not a cop or a lawyer, please don't feel the need to incriminate yourself ;-)

I am curious because of the recent case of a Canadian UN Narcotics Officer who was arrested in Dubai and sentenced to 4 years in prison for possession of "0.6 grams of hashish". (He was pardoned by the Emir as part of a general amnesty to mark the festival of Eid al-Adha.) Apparently hashish is sold by the gram; on the other hand, .6 grams of sugar is about 1/7 of a teaspoon, so it seems like a tiny amount.

I was reading some of the reader's comments on online news articles and I was really surprised by the number of Canadians who said things like "It's his own fault", "Who is he kidding?" "The Canadian government should have left him to rot in jail", and similar sentiments.

My opinion is that he was probably telling the truth. He was working with narcotics on a daily basis, as a UN adviser to the Afghan government. Part of his duties involved overseeing the destruction of narcotics, which in Afghanistan apparently involves building a large open bonfire and burning the stuff, so he was constantly exposed to "second-hand smoke". He also claimed that in parts of Afghanistan, small gifts of hashish were so common that it was impossible to avoid; the usual practice, according to him, was to accept it politely so as not to offend the village chief, then discreetly dispose of it at the first opportunity.

Just how big is the amount they are talking about? Is it like a couple of shreds that got caught in the lining of his pocket, or would it be about the size of a cigarette butt? A cigarette butt would be hard to miss if he was being reasonably careful; pocket lint would be almost impossible to eliminate completely, IMO.

He also was carrying two dried poppy bulbs (some stories said they were dried poppy heads) but supposedly these had zero value as narcotics; he claims he was bringing them back as props to be used in anti-drug lectures he had been asked to give. It was these bulbs which triggered a more thorough search by Dubai officials, which turned up the aforementioned "0.6 grams".

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071219.wpardon19/BNStory/National/home/