DPA
Phnom Penh - Cambodian police arrested and jailed six men allegedly caught smoking marijuana, local media said Thursday.
The six Cambodians all worked as motorbike taxi drivers and were detained in custody pending a court hearing in the seaside resort town of Sihanoukville, 240 kilometres south-west of the capital, according to Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea daily.
Their arrests follow a statement by the country's anti-drugs chief, General Lou Ramin, earlier this year that marijuana, known locally as ganja, was no longer available in Cambodia and people caught with the drug would be harshly punished.
However police said Thursday the six would probably be let off with a fine and a stern warning for a first offense.
Cambodia was once viewed as a safe haven for ganja users, compared to neighbouring countries such as Thailand, which jails smokers, and has been described in pro-marijuana publications such as US-based High Times as a 'pot smoker's paradise'.
But times appear to have changed, according to Rasmei Kampuchea, which warned that not only backpacking tourists who once came to Cambodia for its legendary crop but locals as well are no longer guaranteed of being exempt from the law if caught with the drug.
The six Cambodians all worked as motorbike taxi drivers and were detained in custody pending a court hearing in the seaside resort town of Sihanoukville, 240 kilometres south-west of the capital, according to Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea daily.
Their arrests follow a statement by the country's anti-drugs chief, General Lou Ramin, earlier this year that marijuana, known locally as ganja, was no longer available in Cambodia and people caught with the drug would be harshly punished.
However police said Thursday the six would probably be let off with a fine and a stern warning for a first offense.
Cambodia was once viewed as a safe haven for ganja users, compared to neighbouring countries such as Thailand, which jails smokers, and has been described in pro-marijuana publications such as US-based High Times as a 'pot smoker's paradise'.
But times appear to have changed, according to Rasmei Kampuchea, which warned that not only backpacking tourists who once came to Cambodia for its legendary crop but locals as well are no longer guaranteed of being exempt from the law if caught with the drug.
2 comments:
cambodia is not a place for illegal drug uses, people; so stop using cambodia for your drug abuses. drug abuses are dangerous to society and i don't think cambodia needs more problems in that regards. congratulations to gov't of cambodia for cracking down on illegal drug uses in cambodia. thank you and god bless all.
hahahahha you've got to love the time of the last comment, considering its content.
cannabis has been proven to not be a problematic drug. it does not create dependence, does not mess up your life, and enhances many things. it is not a problem to cambodians at all, where it is traditionally only smoked by old men and sometimes put in soup. the small market of backpackers that smoke it do not pose any problems to anyone, and make the local population money. the cambodian government is wasting hard-needed money on a idiotic purpose, which should be used to help alleviate the extreme poverty of most of the population. the real people in power use this as a show to impress america, and themselves have no education about the drugs they are putting so much effort into eradicating.
and on top of that, while the domestic market may be attacked by the police, the export market for cannabis and other drugs is controlled by rich men with connections to powerful politicians that protect them. this will continue no matter what they say as it makes them a lot of money.
this stupid course of action doesn't help anyone, the cambodia people least of all.
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