10-year sentence for tourist carrying marijuana oil in Dubai

Dubai: A British tourist was on Wednesday sentenced to 10 years in jail after she was arrested with 4.4kg of marijuana oil used in e-cigarettes at Dubai International Airport, a court heard.

The 31-year-old British visitor was arrested carrying 307 pods full with “marijuana oil” or cannabidiol, known as CBD, on April 2019.

An inspector suspected the woman at the airport and found the CBD in her luggage. She was caught with 4.4kg of marijuana oil and 1.4 grams of cocaine powder.

A criminal lab report confirmed the substance was illegal CBD oil.

Dubai Public Prosecution charged the woman with possessing and smuggling illegal substances.

Dubai Court of First Instance ordered her to be to deported after serving the jail time and pay a Dh50,000 fine.

However, the court order can be appealed within two weeks.

The case is the first of its kind at Dubai Courts after Dubai Police warned on April of people caught vaping or smuggling marijuana oil.

Brigadier Eid Thani Hareb, director of the Anti-Narcotics Department, said earlier that marijuana oil usage was on the increase in the first quarter of 2019.

“It can be used through vaping devices and we have witnessed a huge increase in the number of people being arrested this year in comparison to last,” Brig Hareb said.

On the sidelines of the forum, Hareb told Gulf News that 97 people were caught in the first quarter of this year compared to just two in the same period last year. He said most of the offenders were caught smuggling the oil by Dubai Customs.