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Published: August 4th 2014
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Cheap Drugs in Georgia
This is a General Store (which abound in Georgia) selling a 2.5 litre of beer to whoever wants it (no age restriction) for 5.5 lari (about Aus $3 / 2.3 euro) Amasya, Turkey
July 24
th 2014
“
Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” Martin Luther King, Jr. “
I know all the rules but the rules did not know me” Eddie Vedder, Guaranteed I hear that the Georgian Government is trying to position itself for full membership to the European Community.
While my treatment as described in recent blogs hardly amounts to severe in that I still have both my legs, I do wonder how the behaviour meted out to me adds anything to the Georgian case to be attempting to promote a fair and reasonable civil society.
I am 59 years old. I have never ever been convicted of a crime anywhere, anytime, of anything.....until today.
I am
Free Drugs in Georgia
This wild marijuahna is growing less than 500 metres from the Akhaltsikhe Police Station at least grateful that the full brunt of this law in terms of the fine did not apply (i.e. 5,000 lari) after I had the good fortune of some personal approaches to the Georgian government through a well connected Australian lawyer friend of my brother, and some common sense applied by at least one Georgian government minister. But while grateful for this small mercy, it does not take from the general point about this law and the way it is applied.
So, here is an open letter to the Georgian Government:
<per se).
To you is owed the distinction of inflicting upon me the status of 'criminal' in this Kafkaesque farce, having singled me out amongst others, to entrap in your web. All for having been responsible and sensible enough to have had the forethought of buying a few common pain killers in an Australian Pharmacy (with no doctor's prescription required) to travel with.
And all for what? Did the 844 euro fine (Aus $1,220 / 2,000 lari) you have applied even cover the costs of your petty
Grocery essentials in Georgia
Groceries, hot bread, and as much alcohol as you like bureaucratic actions? i.e. the work hours of customs and police, the processing and analytical tests on my pathetic 18 pills, the translator, the legal aid lawyer, the public Prosecutor's and the court's time. Not to mention the damage to your country's tourism reputation from all who hear or read my story?
Well done! Bravo!
But please, do something to change this quite ridiculous application of your law. By all means have cyphers and discernments that will find those who are smuggling significant amounts of narcotics that will harm your citizens for their personal profit. But to bluntly apply a law to law-abiding and unwitting travellers who are only carrying medications for self-use in small quantities is just dumb at best, and grossly unjust otherwise.
Perhaps more attention and energy and resources could go into control and education around the vast amounts of alcohol your citizens so cheaply and easily acquire and consume at all times of every day, including minors who I have seen buying alcohol from supermarkets. >>
Am I bitter and twisted over all this? Well, just a tad, but
Nurofen
No codeine in these over the counter products in Georgian Apothekas, but you can get it on prescription this too will pass. But to the people of Georgia... thanks for everything. I otherwise had a great time in your country. Remember, the government is meant to be there to serve
your interests. Seventy years of Soviet occupation is over.
Yes I still have both my legs, but this absurdity (and I would say injustice) has cost me financially an arm and a leg (albeit it
might have cost me both legs) and my good name.
“
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish” Douglas Adams, The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Universe
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Bravo...
well said.