If you can smuggle “mass” quantities by the usual, slightly uncomfortable, slightly erotic method,you should be in the circus or gay porn - or you’ve spent time in Dannemora.
So, in the very unlikely event that a malicious person sends you a package of drugs in the mail, you’ll be royally screwed because you won’t be able to find a lawyer willing to take your case. Nice!
Seriously, this would really be the way to screw someone over, just send them some marijuana through the mail. Imagine if they were living somewhere with really severe penalties, like Malaysia - mandatory death sentence - now there’s an extortion opportunity for you.
How is this situation dealt with in the States? Also, I wonder if Korean recipients of drug packages with incorrect names would also be presumed guilty or given equal sentences. Or if it’s a matter of Koreans concluding that the chances of a similarly named foreigner living at the same address are slim to none. I guess these guys have to spend a few years in jail - how long are the penalties in Korea?
Penalty depends on quantity. Most people who are caught importing small amounts of marijuana to Korea for personal use get put on trial (held in jail for two or three months pending trial), sentenced to one or two years’ imprisonment, which sentence is suspended by the judge. In that case they are scooped up by Immigration and deported back to Canada, where it’s impossible to re-offend in Korea because they’re banned from re-entry. But be sure to check Dave’s ESL — I’m sure there’s a scam around the immigration ban as well. Maybe changing your name and getting a new passport in that name? I’ve heard that one about half a dozen times.
But every once in a while — it happens more than you would think — one of these characters gets himself a judge who is not in the mood to suspend the sentence, and then the hophead is in a bit of a pickle. Now he needs an appeal, but unlike Chung Mong-koo, “the economy” will go on quite well without another pot-smoking Canuck, and that means the appeal will not automatically result in a reduced sentence.
#9 — “How is this situation dealt with in the States?”
I’m not a lawyer, but if you mean “sending contraband substances through the mail”, I’m pretty sure that makes it a federal rap and would therefore draw the attention of US postal inspectors.
Not necessary to get your pot and probably the last thing you would want to bring down on yourself, if you’re in a “medical marijuana” state like here in California where only the US attorney might be looking to prosecute cases involving relatively minor amounts of pot (ones that didn’t also involving driving or safety issues on the job).
“the economy” will go on quite well without another pot-smoking Canuck,
Never an American, then?
Gratuitous and a little petty there, Brendon. You’d think a citizen of the country where rampant recreational drug abuse was practically invented might feel embarrassed about making snide swipes on the subject to those of other countries.
My cold, black lawyer’s heart drove me to make those remarks about my B.C. buds. But the fact is most of the lying stoners who ring me up begging for assistance have been Canadian.
I’d guess, off the top of my head, that 80% of the English teachers here are Canadian. The rest is statistics in action…
May I offer my own free and friendly advice to the dumb pucks thinking that what’s OK in BC (or wherever) is OK here : Think over the risk/reward ratio and DON’T. Go buy some soju or hit yourself in the head with a hammer if your need for altered consciousness is so great.
But unfortunately, “It won’t happen to me. I’m SPECIAL” type-thinking runs rampant in males under 30…
“…You’d think a citizen of the country where rampant recreational drug abuse was practically invented might feel embarrassed about making snide swipes on the subject to those of other countries.”
Good job of getting in a snide swipe of your own, old bean. I think the Oscar for “inventing rampant recreational drug abuse” should go to the British empire, for the Opium war right over there in your neck of the woods.
However, I have to admit I had the same thought after reading #10. Surely the Americanski drug cowboys aren’t getting slack on us?
You didn’t specifiy the mailing origins of the packages, Brendan, perhaps that would help to clarify. Have the cases of which you have personal knowledge all concerned packages mailed to Korea from Canada?
Recently read a book called Brother Cell One, by Cullen Thomas. 3 1/2 years in Korean prisons as a result of picking up a package at the PO in Seoul addressed to a different name. A fine read.
I’m quite charmed by seeing, for the first time in quite a while, “hophead” used as disparaging label… Very much a “my Dad” thang… Yer showin’ your cranky age again, Brendon…
Yeah, true about the feelings of specialness, but I was alluding to foolhardy and dumbass risk-taking. In my experience 20ish Korean guys seem a little less prone to that, to their credit. Probably because their folks keep them on a tighter leash, (my university age brother-in-law was just refused permission to buy a ‘crotch-rocket’ motorbike by his folks, for instance, guaranteeing him both less fun and a 0% probability of winding up in the emergency room at 3 am impaled on a handlebar) but whatever the cause the end result is arguably better for them.
I’m quite charmed by seeing, for the first time in quite a while, “hophead” used as disparaging label… Very much a “my Dad” thang… Yer showin’ your cranky age again, Brendon…
“…the Oscar for “inventing rampant recreational drug abuse” should go to the British empire,”
In your face North America, it a small victory but the Empire will rise again!!
Seriously though, How do these people think they can get away with it?
I am assuming the ones getting caught for drugs are teaching here legally, in which case how the hell did they manage to get a degree?
Say what you will about snide comments but the simple fact is Canada sends an awful lot of its worst citizens over here. Every frat-boy, unemployable jackass and unmarriable, overweight, beer-swilling strumpet seem to wind up here.
But I blame the folly of Korea’s education system and Korean Immigration for giving every two-bit, hockey-playing dirty hippie with a U. of Khao San Road basket-weaving degree an E2 visa.
I got my best marks while smoking weed. My whole third year of university was spent smoking and studying… it’s amazing how pot can help you forget about your crazy ex and convince yourself that studying is fun… I didn’t smoke a lot though, barely half the size of a cigarette… anyways, “study high, get high grades” was true for me…
Hmmm, I got an idea. If the cops always suspect the Canadian, I better address the name on the package to “Kim Yong Pil” or something… Buhahaha I’m a criminal mastermind.
I’m neither a legal scholar nor a pothead, but I’m curious about the details here. Maybe Mr. Carr would be kind enough to explain.
–> It’s obvious from Mr. Carr’s warning that mail-ordering potheads are getting busted, but once they are found out by the police, exactly how does the court find them guilty? I mean, assuming the package’s address label is not from their handwriting or from a country that their passport shows they’ve recently visited (or any other damning link)… it seems like there is no solid evidence. They can easily make a claim ignorance and that they can’t get in trouble for having an address. Is there some law that is getting twisted here, or is the Korean “justice” “system” just not too big the “innocent until proven guilty” concept?
(They’ve certainly got the “Innocent until not proven chaebol chairman” concept down.)
Let’s face it Carr, you don’t really deserve to be on the American Embassy list of Attorneys. Even if you had a real victim in your terms you would and have denied them of a defense and/or counter-lawsuit. You did it with me, so I know you don’t care about the English Teacher simply because you price us out of our service range.
Yes that’s right, you quoted me $40,000 to represent me for a small time case. Without you I battled the ordeal myself and somehow received a somewhat favorable Judgement in the Korean court. When Carr first quoted me via e-mail, he stated $5,000. When I went to his office and spoke to him personally he said $40,000
Sounds as if he would have dragged the case on as long as possible with the intention to suck me dry, $5,000 increments until he received $40,000
You told me…”I don’t represent employees, only employers.” Those kind of words don’t deserve you the right to be on the American Embassy list of Attorneys and you know it!
Amazing everybody blames the Canucks… while the Canadians I meet are often uneducated alcoholics or dorks with poor degrees, the Americans are often culturally-insensitive sex-fiends or religious wackos… It takes all kinds.
“But every once in a while — it happens more than you would think — one of these characters gets himself a judge who is not in the mood to suspend the sentence, and then the hophead is in a bit of a pickle. Now he needs an appeal, but unlike Chung Mong-koo, “the economy” will go on quite well without another pot-smoking Canuck, and that means the appeal will not automatically result in a reduced sentence.”
- might it be possible that this is a result of some english speaking lawyers in korea quoting their services in prices that are far out of reach of the average foreigner? hence, when “another pot smoking canuck” whether guilty or not, is unable to get quality legal representation, and is faced with a legal system that treats foreigners unfairly?
Can’t agree with you. Working people (even those with a cold, black lawyer’s heart ) have a right to set the price on their work, just as you have a right to pass on that price.
Korean students of English who desperately want 1-1 English with a teacher, as perhaps you are, might think that you ‘don’t care about them’ as proven by you ‘pricing yourself out of their reach’ with prices like 50,000won per hour, but will that make you give them English at 10,000won per hour? I doubt it.
As for deserving to be on the list, I hesitate to speak for Mr. Carr but… I’d guess it is as much a pain as any sort of profit or privilege to be on it.
Glad to hear you partially won your case - so he did you a favor by not taking even $5000 buck from you, then!
#28,
Well, even if he had felt unnecessarily generous with his rates (he had no obligation to take your case, you know), he would have still had to answer to his boss…and it seems clear that his boss wants to deal with companies, not individuals (not to mention that his rates are probably set by the firm).
But, let’s be honest: B. Carr is anti-English teacher. He is also anti-hagwon owner, anti-drug user, anti-soju-breath, anti-Democrat, anti-socialist, anti-robber baron, anti-Korean, and anti-Canadian. He likes money but dislikes working too much for that money. So, you see, the reason B. Carr stays away from hagwon disputes is that he has no one to root for.
And yes, being on the Embassy list is a royal pain in the ass. The vast majority (like 99.99%) of people who call from that list are complete wastes of space.
Yes, but we all shouldn’t have the right to be on the American Embassy list of whatever. Thus, the Embassy allows him to waste the time of English Teachers/Employees.
He doesn’t represent employees in labor disputes, yet he is/was listed as a ‘Labor Attorney.’ At the least there should be an asterisk * by his name.
The following Attorney *Brendon Carr* doesn’t represent employees.
” B. Carr is anti-English teacher. He is also anti-hagwon owner, anti-drug user, anti-soju-breath, anti-Democrat, anti-socialist, anti-robber baron, anti-Korean, and anti-Canadian. He likes money but dislikes working too much for that money. ”
I just had a terrifyingly real vision of Brendon clinking a toast with The Simpsons’ Mr. Burns, Nelson & thugs
Listen, folks, I think we’re talking about pot or hash, not (crack) cocaine or heroin or crystal meth or anything terrible like that (and there IS a difference, unless you’re one of those myopic sheep blindly believing the shit governments shovel constantly about ALL “drugs” being bad).
And though these morons are breaking the law, some of you are acting as if you’ve never done anything illegal in your life, either here in Korea or elsewhere. I know that smoking pot is a more serious offense here than in, say, Canada, but that doesn’t mean that the law against smoking pot isn’t necessarily hyperbolic and hypocritical nonsense. There’s a reason it’s been considered to be medicinal in cultures the world over for centuries, including here in Korea, more especially here in gangwon province, the Korean home of mary-jane growing, where it’s not looked upon (privately) as disparagingly as it is elsewhere on the peninsula.
So, try to stem your moral and hypocritical outrage about drugs or doing anything illegal here in Korea.
Anyway, you guys are so busy disparaging fat-ass canuck-gooks, culturally-insensitive miguk-gooks, pot-smoking hopheads, and overcharging liars, er, lawyers, that you’re missing the real point(s):
What’s happening to all the pot the authorities are confiscating? Who gets it? Is there a government auction, like for repossessed cars, houses, and the like? If so, and one buys through these channels, is it considered illegal?
Now that is information worth being overcharged for!
There’s one thing I’ve learned from all the fuss over this topic over the many years I’ve been working in Korea, and posting at the Marmot’s Hole: There are a whole lot of jackasses who think it’s their God-given right to demand that someone else (me and my colleagues) donate money from our pockets to clean up a mess the jackasses could have avoided themselves. Get over yourselves.
There’s a shortage of English-speaking professionals. If you want English-language services, you have to pay for them. The market sets the rate.
If you don’t want to pay the market rate for English-language services, there are a number of excellent — and mediocre, and terrible, so you have many choices — Korean-speaking attorneys who defend foreign criminals. There is also a free public defender who will be assigned to give you 40 minutes of his or her time (they have to defend 80 criminals per month, for a salary of W4,000,000). This public defender won’t speak English and 40 minutes isn’t enough time to give a crap about you, but hey — it’s free! The court also has a free interpreter available for you. The interpreter doesn’t speak English either. Be sure to blame me for that.
B. Carr needs to quit whining about all the English Teachers that call him. If he really doesn’t like them calling him, he would take himself off the American Embassy list of Attorneys or put an asterisk by his name stating that he doesn’t represent English Teachers/Employees.
# 39 B. Carr
Better yet, why don’t you tell everyone through the USA Embassy list of Attorneys just how you feel about those you mentioned?
Simply place the following information on the list…
“B. Carr is anti-English teacher. He is also anti-hagwon owner, anti-drug user, anti-soju-breath, anti-Democrat, anti-socialist, anti-robber baron, anti-Korean, and anti-Canadian. He likes money but dislikes working too much for that money. So, you see, the reason B. Carr stays away from hagwon disputes is that he has no one to root for.
And yes, being on the Embassy list is a royal pain in the ass. The vast majority (like 99.99%) of people who call from that list are complete wastes of space.”
Okay B. Carr, I’ll give you a week. If you don’t at least put an asterisk my your name, then just quit your whining about the phone calls!
Looks like a job opportunity for Lionel Hutz (RIP Phil Hartman): lawyer to the greatly wronged ESL crowd. He’d get plenty of business, but he’d probably have to keep his shoe repair business to survive.
dissidentdave, I’m not myopic. I’m simply not addicted and chain bound to hash.
I would have no problem with prescribing amphetamines, dronabinol, or opioids as medicinally indicated.
You guys say legalize it, but it’s usually not just hash that you want legalized. Even in countries that legalize it, there is some control and restrictions of use. What you really want, is the right to smoke it anywhere, preferabbly without current restrictions on cigarette use in public.
Be honest, man.
You guys cry about oil and blood, and war.
Have you ever thought about how your $ spent on hash and other drugs affect other people in society?
Do you buy hash, and therefore fund criminal activity?
Yes, you do.
Do drug dealers kill people?
Why, … Yes ! Hash, blood, and war.
Drug using Liberals fund druglords and perpetuate misery in many parts of the world.
You might say your drug use in North America is keeping South America alive. I’d have to think about that one. Druglords are better than good, old-fashioned industry on the economy?
You say you grow your own super potency pot. Ok. Do you realize how much electricity is being wasted just so you can get high? Comes from oil. How do you justify that use of oil? You’re no different from a gas guzzler driver. Total waste of earth’s resources.
Again, people who have never used pot, probably won’t even NEED it.
Yeah, esp when you know that in real life Brendon is a mensch and nice guy; he just plays a hardass on the net ’cause it amuses him to do so (my theory).
Been on friendly terms with him for six years or so, have never needed his Services — being careful and respectful-of-the-spirits to ensure that I never do…
It’s been known for a long time as offering for its ability to offer pain relief to those who suffer from arthritis. In fact, old Chinese texts list marijuana as ‘undoing rheumatism’. Specific hybrids have been grown specifically to heighten the plant’s anti-inflammatory properties.
Medicinal marijuana aren’t ‘druggies’. That’s conservative propaganda. It’s tantamount to saying that every codeine user is a cokehead like George W. Bush used to be.
“Yeah, esp when you know that in real life Brendon is a mensch and nice guy; he just plays a hardass on the net ’cause it amuses him to do so (my theory).”
I also think he gets a kick out of pushing people’s buttons…maybe to see how far he can get away with playing the stereotypical shark of a lawyer. Were he a true a-hole, he wouldn’t bother giving out free legal advice on his blog.
If pot smoking were tolerated in Korea, worker productivity would fall well below OECD averages, drivers would become sloppy and unattentive, young women would turn to prostitution while young men wasted their days playing computer games, garbage would pile up around telephone poles, the integrity and academic credentials of public figures would slump, business leaders would turn to embezzlement and violent crime, public policy would be captured by radical fringe groups, journalists would be lazy and unethical and often just make stuff up …. the horror!
People rationalizing that they should be able to smoke dope in Korea for X, Y, and Z reasons reminds me of illegal immigrants claiming a right to be in the U.S.
It’s ILLEGAL! If you get caught, STFU and take your licks.
Why must you tell me what I must think? Why would I think you maintain that site?
Aren’t you going to contact the Embassy and ask them to edit your advertisement? Please do, so that you don’t waste the time of English Teachers/Employees!
I would say that you are somewhat responsible for the information concerning yourself on the American Embassy list of Attorneys. What astounds me is why you would enter into such an agreement? You should have written up a contract with the Embassy granting yourself some rights to maintain the website.
You stated something like… “Boo, hoo there must be some website out there directing English Teacher to me etc…”
Again, at the least I would like to see an asterisk by your name stating you don’t represent employees in labor disputes. Or else, STOP WHINING about the phone calls you get!
I agree with Richardson totally. A friend of mine said that smoking pot in Korea is simply inconsiderate… How would you feel if a guest in your home took a piss on your sofa?
36: As for getting high marks while high, it’s pretty easy as an English major. It’s amazing how immersed you can get in reading Chaucer or writing a thesis on Postmodernism while stoned. Of course, a quick review while sober is absolutely needed, due to the usual brain malfunctions that happen…
33: I guess you lack information (I’m from Canada) and it just seems most of the Canadian English teachers I’ve met here are music history or quantum philosophy majors…
“33: I guess you lack information (I’m from Canada) and it just seems most of the Canadian English teachers I’ve met here are music history or quantum philosophy majors…”
Lack information about Canadian universities? 1) I was being sarcastic, 2) I’m Canadian.
Besides, I know far too many Canadians who were actively sought by American universities to think that a Canadian degree isn’t as valuable as an American one. Heck, I even met the first African-American woman to become the student representative on the board of directors of Harvard U (or something like that)… She’s actually Canadian.
I mean, assuming the package’s address label is not from their handwriting or from a country that their passport shows they’ve recently visited (or any other damning link)… it seems like there is no solid evidence. They can easily make a claim ignorance and that they can’t get in trouble for having an address.
I would think that, the crime being possession, simply being, you know, in possession of the goods would be pretty conclusive proof of the crime. The challenge then comes down to you proving that the drugs weren’t actually yours by doing stuff like calling the police as soon as you open the package, pissing clear on a drug test soon after being arrested, and not having any suspiciously large amounts of money laying around your abode. But I don’t know much about Korea police procedure…. do they generally give you enough time to either smoke a bowl and prove your guilt, or do what the law says you should and immediately report the ‘mix-up’?
dissidentdave, I’m not myopic. I’m simply not addicted and chain bound to hash.
I would have no problem with prescribing amphetamines, dronabinol, or opioids as medicinally indicated.
You guys say legalize it, but it’s usually not just hash that you want legalized. Even in countries that legalize it, there is some control and restrictions of use. What you really want, is the right to smoke it anywhere, preferabbly without current restrictions on cigarette use in public.
Be honest, man.
You guys cry about oil and blood, and war.
Have you ever thought about how your $ spent on hash and other drugs affect other people in society?
Do you buy hash, and therefore fund criminal activity?
Yes, you do.
Do drug dealers kill people?
Why, … Yes ! Hash, blood, and war.
Drug using Liberals fund druglords and perpetuate misery in many parts of the world.
You might say your drug use in North America is keeping South America alive. I’d have to think about that one. Druglords are better than good, old-fashioned industry on the economy?
You say you grow your own super potency pot. Ok. Do you realize how much electricity is being wasted just so you can get high? Comes from oil. How do you justify that use of oil? You’re no different from a gas guzzler driver. Total waste of earth’s resources.
Again, people who have never used pot, probably won’t even NEED it.
someguyinKorea, it appears you are providing a link to using the real stuff, herbal marijuana, which is ILLEGAL in many, many, many countries. Instead of linking to other drugs produced for safe usage, to be purchased at a pharmacy with a doctor’s prescription.
All mind altering medications, except alcohol, are regulated in quantity and dosage. This is pretty much a rule throughout the world. MJ should be of no exception. Self medication is not in the best interests of patients or society. I’m not gonna step up to the plate for alcohol. A popular choice for self medication. You can buy as much as you want, unless you’re in a sports stadium, but there are ways to get around that, too. I only drink to get that good feeling, and feel no need to drink anymore. Others literally drink until they lose their minds. Why society allows this, in light of social problems resulting from it, I don’t know.
And westeners, don’t try to have it both ways. While slamming Chinese East Asian herbal medicine as a placebo as a whole, you have clearly tried to legitimize MJ by citing speculative usage in East Asian herbal medicine in the past. If you want to say that, admit that Chinese Herbal medicine IS medicine. There is medicine in there. It’s not concentrated and specific like a western medicine pill, but it was never meant to be.
Your hash habit causes poverty, funds criminals, promotes crimes, and keeps 3rd world countries as 3rd world countries. Stop wasting oil and electricity to grow a non-essential crop.
I do find it curious that the attitude of our self-declared “Libertarians” is that if the gvmt sez it’s against the law, for whatever weak reason or no reason — we should just STFU and obey the law, make no protest, make no struggle for aquittals, raise no questions. Big Brother is always right on His regulation of our personal pleasures, eh?
Potential clients wanting to accept Mr. Carr’s advice to do a bit of their own comparison shopping might have a look at The Korean Law Blog, and decide which lawyer’s tone more appeals to them as prospective employers of the attorneys’ friendly services. The Sept 6 post begins thusly:
Dear Professor Sean Hayes: I have been charged with the consumption and possession of drugs. I am being held at a detention center south of Seoul. I was arrested in Itaewon and tested positive for THC (marijuana). My home was searched and they found marijuana in my house.
I don’t believe that non-Korean licensed attorneys can represent criminal defendants in Korean courts and looking at Hayes’ blog, I can’t help but wonder where the line is crossed when advising on Korean law without being a licensed Korean attorney.
Potential clients wanting to accept Mr. Carr’s advice to do a bit of their own comparison shopping might have a look at The Korean Law Blog…
The firm with which Sean Hayes is loosely affiliated does accept criminal-defense clients, including GI grandma-beaters and lying Canadian hopheads. I have no idea what they charge — but I imagine it’s not cheap, as he makes reference to second mortgage on the family home — nor do I have any idea whether they are any good. Probably they’re good enough.
If I’ve chased off the lucrative pot-smoking English teacher segment of “potential clients” by my honesty here and on my own blog, I’ll take it. In fact, Sean Hayes can have all of them.
Businesspeople might take a look at the content of my Korea Law Blog and Sean’s “Korean Law Blog” and make a judgment about which one contains more actual knowledge relevant to their situation. As for me, I read that “Dear Sean” letter with the fictional pot-smoker and quickly found one naive error that made me laugh out loud, and in fact when another foreign lawyer raised that column he noted the exact same error. But hey, you takes your chances.
UPDATE 4 MAR 2008: Sean has corrected me: Ahnse is not the law firm which represented the GI grandma-beater, nor are the drug defendants the firm represents “lying Canadian hopheads”. These were inferences I drew from Sean’s quotes in Stars & Stripes concerning other criminal matters. I stand corrected.
Not my field, but it’s obvious that while they can’t technically “be your lawyer” in court, the foreign lawyers and paralegals (or whatever) employed by Korean law offices still charge for providing legal services. Both blogs are in effect free legal services, aren’t they?
my comment that is on some kind of hold or blocked out states it, but here goes,
except for alcohol, it is pretty much universal law that mind altering drugs are regulated in quantity and dosage.
Self medication is not in the best interests of the patient or society as a whole.
MJ should be of no exception. And, I’m not gonna defend alcohol at all. For some reason, you can buy as much as money allows and drink as much as you can.
The vast majority of these legalize it movements are aimed for MJ usage not in the medical sense (which is already being done with concentrated, factory produced medicine, with doctor’s prescriptions), but for quite frankly, getting high.
I’m probably repeating myself, but your drug habit funds criminal activities and wastes valuable electricity and resources for a non essential crop.
Not my field, but it’s obvious that while they can’t technically “be your lawyer” in court, the foreign lawyers and paralegals (or whatever) employed by Korean law offices still charge for providing legal services. Both blogs are in effect free legal services, aren’t they?
I do not know what the rules in Korea are, but the general rule in U.S. states is that lawyers from other countries (working in the U.S.) can only provide legal advice concerning the laws of the foreign jurisdictions where they are admitted.
“It’s illegal! It’s illegal! Therefore, you simply mustn’t do it!”
For myself, no victim = no crime. I’ll give a passing thought to crazy Americanan worshippers of laws — any and all laws without exceptions — the next time I get together with my illegal immigrant buddies to burn one. But that passing thought will be the same one I always have, “Why can’t they just live and let live?”
I do find it curious that the attitude of our self-declared “Libertarians” is that if the gvmt sez it’s against the law, for whatever weak reason or no reason — we should just STFU and obey the law, make no protest, make no struggle for acquittals, raise no questions. Big Brother is always right on His regulation of our personal pleasures, eh?
If you’re a Korean then fine, sanshinseon. Fight the power, etc.
If you’re not a citizen and therefore a guest in this country, then yes, STFU and obey their laws or fucking leave. To paraphrase someone above, if you’re a guest in someone’s home where they tell you you can’t smoke up, and you do, you’re not a romantic freedom fighter - you’re an asshole who should be grabbed by the back of the neck and kicked in the ass out the door.
It’s not a draconian law. All drugs that alter mental functions should be regulated in dosage and quantity. That’s a universal trend in almost all countries. The only exception is alcohol. Like I said, I’m not gonna defend that one. People shouldn’t be able to drink all they want. For personal and public safety, these drugs are best not self medicated.
I’m not a wop, so I don’t care about the correct spelling.
It’s not your country, dda. Therein lies the key point. Koreans have emphatically decided they don’t want pot here. We’re guests in the country. I don’t want Draconian laws, in fact I wish Korea was as relaxed as Canada about it and I could smoke up here all the time. It would make much more sense for me to tell you ‘If you want relaxed laws, go to Canada or the Netherlands.’
But until Korean society changes its attitude about pot, I’ll respect (in the sense of follow) how they wish to run the place while I’m here. If I or anyone else doesn’t like it, there is a remarkably comprehensive bus service to Incheon airport from most neighborhoods in Seoul.
I don’t want more relaxed laws, I loathe Holland [and while my opinion of Canada is not that high, I've never been there, so I'll wait and see...], and indeed, since it’s not my country — as was reminded to me every day, sometimes several times a day, during the 12 years I lived there, I won’t lobby for stricter laws; but I can applaud when the po-lice enforces their laws [which, after all, is not all too often...].
Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t meaning to imply that laws banning marijuana in Korea are draconian. And, yes, I too think that as guests in Korea, we foreigners are obliged to follow the laws of the land, or leave.
My point is that all these ills you attribute to drugs are more accurately blamed on self-defeating prohibition laws. If drugs were legal and regulated, there would be no need for the vast criminal networks that control most of Afghanistan and large swathes of South America, and otherwise harmless people wouldn’t be going to jail for the victimless crime of smoking marijuana.
So, let me ask you again, don’t draconian drug laws (where they exist) actually exacerbate all the problems you cite?
“Koreans have emphatically decided they don’t want pot here.”
implies some kind of unanimous group decision. Given that you have spoken on behalf of all Korean citizens, I shall take the liberty of speaking on behalf of only those several Korean citizens I have smoked marijuana with: They beg to differ.
In order to make your statement true, you would have to change it to read “some Koreans” or possibly “a majority of Koreans.”
It would be interesting indeed to conduct a survey — with guaranteed anonymity — asking Korean citizens: “Should marijuana be legalized and regulated in a manner similar to alcohol?” I think you might be surprised at the number of people who would answer yes. It could turn out to be a set of people similar to what it would be in North America — those who realize the folly of prohibition.
One might also argue there’s a difference between being against the criminalization of pot and lobbying my local lawmaker to change the laws, and being against the criminalization of pot and ignoring existing laws to illegally smoke it.
I have tried to convince the several local (California) lawmakers I have smoked marijuana with to get the laws changed. Most of them are doing what they can–albeit very subtly. In the few cases where these illegally smoking lawmakers have taken a strong stand against prohibition and in favor of legalization, they have soon ceased to be lawmakers.
If drugs were legal and regulated, there would be no need for the vast criminal networks that control most of Afghanistan and large swathes of South America…
Let’s be clear here. Are you advocating the legalization of heroin and cocaine as well as marijuana? Because the “vast criminal networks” you reference here have nothing to do with ganja.
As for the “the victimless crime of smoking marijuana,” I suspect that the parents of countless basement-dwelling pot-smoking losers might take exception to that characterization. All kidding aside, the survivors of car accidents caused by driving under the influence of marijuana—and the grieving families of those who didn’t survive such accidents—might object even more strongly. But then again, the same could be said of the victimless non-crime of drinking alcohol.
Despite my personal distaste for marijuana and its devotees, given the alternatives:
- criminalized, with inconsistent and ineffective enforcement (the status quo);
- criminalized with draconian penalties and enforcement (for a comparatively minor matter); or
- decriminalized and regulated as necessary for health and safety, a la alcohol;
To answer your question, Ut videam, yes, I do support legalizing all drugs, for the simple reason that prohibition has achieved the exact opposite of what it set out to do. In most parts of most Western countries, drugs are now more plentiful, cheaper and more potent than ever before. A neat side effect of this has been endemic corruption and rampant organized crime in the likes of Columbia and Afghanistan. And as an added bonus, tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people have been thrown in jail for youthful indiscretions (let’s not mention George Bush and the cocaine allegations) and turned into real criminals.
Though I don’t take any drugs now, I have done in the past. I don’t condone their use, but I do think that grown adults should be free to harm themselves in any way they wish. Of course, if someone drives under the influence of marijuana, coke, booze or anything else, that’s an entirely different matter.
Koreans have collectively said they don’t want pot here by electing folks who are against legalizing it over and over again. Since these decisions are arrived at collectively by the Korean people and binding to all members of Korean society (including guests), I don’t see any need to add “some” or “a majority” to the statement that they don’t want pot.
A group decision in a democratic society does not have to be unanimous. The people have spoken, Korea doesn’t want pot.
BTW, from what you wrote in #97, it seems that the people of California are not to happy with pot either.
BTW, as far as my personal views on legalizing pot, I just don’t have a dog in that fight.
It would be interesting indeed to conduct a survey — with guaranteed anonymity — asking Korean citizens: “Should marijuana be legalized and regulated in a manner similar to alcohol foreigners be prevented from marrying Korean women?” I think you might be surprised at the number of people who would answer yes.
Some herbal medicine, regardless of whether it is Chinese or not, does indeed work… only some. Most of it is just bunk, though.
Marijuana is one of the herbal medicines that have been clinically proven to help in the treatment of certain illnesses. Don’t believe it, look it up yourself.
Bush was a cokehead at one point in his life, regardless of whether he took codeine for medical reasons or not.
Do I have an illness that can be treated with marijuana? I don’t see how that matters, but yes, I do.
“All drugs that alter mental functions should be regulated in dosage and quantity. ”
Oh, okay… So, how long do you figure it will take to have riots if the Korean government made the use and possession of tobacco, alcohol and caffeine illegal as of now?
158 Comments
Carr does it again. Sage legal advice for free. I’m just disappointed he doesn’t address the real issue…
…how does one smuggle mass quantities of contraband into Korea… aside from the usual, slightly uncomfortable, slightly erotic method?
How does one smuggle masses of illicit substances into Korea? Why put it on a North Korean freighter, of course!
If you can smuggle “mass” quantities by the usual, slightly uncomfortable, slightly erotic method,you should be in the circus or gay porn - or you’ve spent time in Dannemora.
Brendon Carr,
Ingratiate yourself. You old “Seabee”.
Runways on Atolls,
Fred
P.S. - Civilized behavior doesn’t mean shit to a tree.
So, in the very unlikely event that a malicious person sends you a package of drugs in the mail, you’ll be royally screwed because you won’t be able to find a lawyer willing to take your case. Nice!
…not to say that 99.99% of the guys who receives drugs in the mail aren’t guilty.
Someguy,
What’s your address?
Richardson,
What’s your address?
Seriously, this would really be the way to screw someone over, just send them some marijuana through the mail. Imagine if they were living somewhere with really severe penalties, like Malaysia - mandatory death sentence - now there’s an extortion opportunity for you.
How is this situation dealt with in the States? Also, I wonder if Korean recipients of drug packages with incorrect names would also be presumed guilty or given equal sentences. Or if it’s a matter of Koreans concluding that the chances of a similarly named foreigner living at the same address are slim to none. I guess these guys have to spend a few years in jail - how long are the penalties in Korea?
Penalty depends on quantity. Most people who are caught importing small amounts of marijuana to Korea for personal use get put on trial (held in jail for two or three months pending trial), sentenced to one or two years’ imprisonment, which sentence is suspended by the judge. In that case they are scooped up by Immigration and deported back to Canada, where it’s impossible to re-offend in Korea because they’re banned from re-entry. But be sure to check Dave’s ESL — I’m sure there’s a scam around the immigration ban as well. Maybe changing your name and getting a new passport in that name? I’ve heard that one about half a dozen times.
But every once in a while — it happens more than you would think — one of these characters gets himself a judge who is not in the mood to suspend the sentence, and then the hophead is in a bit of a pickle. Now he needs an appeal, but unlike Chung Mong-koo, “the economy” will go on quite well without another pot-smoking Canuck, and that means the appeal will not automatically result in a reduced sentence.
#1: “Sage legal advice for free.”
Really? “Don’t do drugs in Korea.” You’re right, it is indeed free.
#9 — “How is this situation dealt with in the States?”
I’m not a lawyer, but if you mean “sending contraband substances through the mail”, I’m pretty sure that makes it a federal rap and would therefore draw the attention of US postal inspectors.
Not necessary to get your pot and probably the last thing you would want to bring down on yourself, if you’re in a “medical marijuana” state like here in California where only the US attorney might be looking to prosecute cases involving relatively minor amounts of pot (ones that didn’t also involving driving or safety issues on the job).
“the economy” will go on quite well without another pot-smoking Canuck,
Never an American, then?
Gratuitous and a little petty there, Brendon. You’d think a citizen of the country where rampant recreational drug abuse was practically invented might feel embarrassed about making snide swipes on the subject to those of other countries.
My cold, black lawyer’s heart drove me to make those remarks about my B.C. buds. But the fact is most of the lying stoners who ring me up begging for assistance have been Canadian.
I’d guess, off the top of my head, that 80% of the English teachers here are Canadian. The rest is statistics in action…
May I offer my own free and friendly advice to the dumb pucks thinking that what’s OK in BC (or wherever) is OK here : Think over the risk/reward ratio and DON’T. Go buy some soju or hit yourself in the head with a hammer if your need for altered consciousness is so great.
But unfortunately, “It won’t happen to me. I’m SPECIAL” type-thinking runs rampant in males under 30…
“…You’d think a citizen of the country where rampant recreational drug abuse was practically invented might feel embarrassed about making snide swipes on the subject to those of other countries.”
Good job of getting in a snide swipe of your own, old bean. I think the Oscar for “inventing rampant recreational drug abuse” should go to the British empire, for the Opium war right over there in your neck of the woods.
However, I have to admit I had the same thought after reading #10. Surely the Americanski drug cowboys aren’t getting slack on us?
You didn’t specifiy the mailing origins of the packages, Brendan, perhaps that would help to clarify. Have the cases of which you have personal knowledge all concerned packages mailed to Korea from Canada?
That’s an attitude [dude] I’ve seen in Korean males of all ages, too…
Recently read a book called Brother Cell One, by Cullen Thomas. 3 1/2 years in Korean prisons as a result of picking up a package at the PO in Seoul addressed to a different name. A fine read.
I’m quite charmed by seeing, for the first time in quite a while, “hophead” used as disparaging label… Very much a “my Dad” thang… Yer showin’ your cranky age again, Brendon…
#7
Yeah, true about the feelings of specialness, but I was alluding to foolhardy and dumbass risk-taking. In my experience 20ish Korean guys seem a little less prone to that, to their credit. Probably because their folks keep them on a tighter leash, (my university age brother-in-law was just refused permission to buy a ‘crotch-rocket’ motorbike by his folks, for instance, guaranteeing him both less fun and a 0% probability of winding up in the emergency room at 3 am impaled on a handlebar) but whatever the cause the end result is arguably better for them.
What can I say, Dave? I’m a traditionalist.
I meant, #17
get drunk. ya wannna smoke weed? go flippas
“…the Oscar for “inventing rampant recreational drug abuse” should go to the British empire,”
In your face North America, it a small victory but the Empire will rise again!!
Seriously though, How do these people think they can get away with it?
I am assuming the ones getting caught for drugs are teaching here legally, in which case how the hell did they manage to get a degree?
Say what you will about snide comments but the simple fact is Canada sends an awful lot of its worst citizens over here. Every frat-boy, unemployable jackass and unmarriable, overweight, beer-swilling strumpet seem to wind up here.
But I blame the folly of Korea’s education system and Korean Immigration for giving every two-bit, hockey-playing dirty hippie with a U. of Khao San Road basket-weaving degree an E2 visa.
I got my best marks while smoking weed. My whole third year of university was spent smoking and studying… it’s amazing how pot can help you forget about your crazy ex and convince yourself that studying is fun… I didn’t smoke a lot though, barely half the size of a cigarette… anyways, “study high, get high grades” was true for me…
Hmmm, I got an idea. If the cops always suspect the Canadian, I better address the name on the package to “Kim Yong Pil” or something… Buhahaha I’m a criminal mastermind.
I’m neither a legal scholar nor a pothead, but I’m curious about the details here. Maybe Mr. Carr would be kind enough to explain.
–> It’s obvious from Mr. Carr’s warning that mail-ordering potheads are getting busted, but once they are found out by the police, exactly how does the court find them guilty? I mean, assuming the package’s address label is not from their handwriting or from a country that their passport shows they’ve recently visited (or any other damning link)… it seems like there is no solid evidence. They can easily make a claim ignorance and that they can’t get in trouble for having an address. Is there some law that is getting twisted here, or is the Korean “justice” “system” just not too big the “innocent until proven guilty” concept?
(They’ve certainly got the “Innocent until not proven chaebol chairman” concept down.)
B. Carr is Anti-Teacher/Employee
Let’s face it Carr, you don’t really deserve to be on the American Embassy list of Attorneys. Even if you had a real victim in your terms you would and have denied them of a defense and/or counter-lawsuit. You did it with me, so I know you don’t care about the English Teacher simply because you price us out of our service range.
Yes that’s right, you quoted me $40,000 to represent me for a small time case. Without you I battled the ordeal myself and somehow received a somewhat favorable Judgement in the Korean court. When Carr first quoted me via e-mail, he stated $5,000. When I went to his office and spoke to him personally he said $40,000
Sounds as if he would have dragged the case on as long as possible with the intention to suck me dry, $5,000 increments until he received $40,000
You told me…”I don’t represent employees, only employers.” Those kind of words don’t deserve you the right to be on the American Embassy list of Attorneys and you know it!
@26 Were your highest grades C’s? Had to ask…
Amazing everybody blames the Canucks… while the Canadians I meet are often uneducated alcoholics or dorks with poor degrees, the Americans are often culturally-insensitive sex-fiends or religious wackos… It takes all kinds.
Oh I was a D or C average student, suffering from depression… got nearly straight A’s on pot… my lowest was a B.
“But every once in a while — it happens more than you would think — one of these characters gets himself a judge who is not in the mood to suspend the sentence, and then the hophead is in a bit of a pickle. Now he needs an appeal, but unlike Chung Mong-koo, “the economy” will go on quite well without another pot-smoking Canuck, and that means the appeal will not automatically result in a reduced sentence.”
- might it be possible that this is a result of some english speaking lawyers in korea quoting their services in prices that are far out of reach of the average foreigner? hence, when “another pot smoking canuck” whether guilty or not, is unable to get quality legal representation, and is faced with a legal system that treats foreigners unfairly?
“uneducated alcoholics or dorks with poor degrees”
…because we all know that Canadian universities couldn’t possibly be any good when compared to American universities. (note the sarcasm)
@27 — The answer is pretty simple: The package has your address but not your name. Why would you accept a package not addressed to you?
#28
Can’t agree with you. Working people (even those with a cold, black lawyer’s heart
) have a right to set the price on their work, just as you have a right to pass on that price.
Korean students of English who desperately want 1-1 English with a teacher, as perhaps you are, might think that you ‘don’t care about them’ as proven by you ‘pricing yourself out of their reach’ with prices like 50,000won per hour, but will that make you give them English at 10,000won per hour? I doubt it.
As for deserving to be on the list, I hesitate to speak for Mr. Carr but… I’d guess it is as much a pain as any sort of profit or privilege to be on it.
Glad to hear you partially won your case - so he did you a favor by not taking even $5000 buck from you, then!
bipolar, what was your major of study?
#28,
Well, even if he had felt unnecessarily generous with his rates (he had no obligation to take your case, you know), he would have still had to answer to his boss…and it seems clear that his boss wants to deal with companies, not individuals (not to mention that his rates are probably set by the firm).
“ipolar, what was your major of study?”
I doubt it was Physical Education…unless he could specialize in snowboarding at his university.
But, let’s be honest: B. Carr is anti-English teacher. He is also anti-hagwon owner, anti-drug user, anti-soju-breath, anti-Democrat, anti-socialist, anti-robber baron, anti-Korean, and anti-Canadian. He likes money but dislikes working too much for that money. So, you see, the reason B. Carr stays away from hagwon disputes is that he has no one to root for.
And yes, being on the Embassy list is a royal pain in the ass. The vast majority (like 99.99%) of people who call from that list are complete wastes of space.
# 35
Yes, but we all shouldn’t have the right to be on the American Embassy list of whatever. Thus, the Embassy allows him to waste the time of English Teachers/Employees.
He doesn’t represent employees in labor disputes, yet he is/was listed as a ‘Labor Attorney.’ At the least there should be an asterisk * by his name.
The following Attorney *Brendon Carr* doesn’t represent employees.
” B. Carr is anti-English teacher. He is also anti-hagwon owner, anti-drug user, anti-soju-breath, anti-Democrat, anti-socialist, anti-robber baron, anti-Korean, and anti-Canadian. He likes money but dislikes working too much for that money. ”
I just had a terrifyingly real vision of Brendon clinking a toast with The Simpsons’ Mr. Burns, Nelson & thugs
“Gentlemen, to evil!”
Listen, folks, I think we’re talking about pot or hash, not (crack) cocaine or heroin or crystal meth or anything terrible like that (and there IS a difference, unless you’re one of those myopic sheep blindly believing the shit governments shovel constantly about ALL “drugs” being bad).
And though these morons are breaking the law, some of you are acting as if you’ve never done anything illegal in your life, either here in Korea or elsewhere. I know that smoking pot is a more serious offense here than in, say, Canada, but that doesn’t mean that the law against smoking pot isn’t necessarily hyperbolic and hypocritical nonsense. There’s a reason it’s been considered to be medicinal in cultures the world over for centuries, including here in Korea, more especially here in gangwon province, the Korean home of mary-jane growing, where it’s not looked upon (privately) as disparagingly as it is elsewhere on the peninsula.
So, try to stem your moral and hypocritical outrage about drugs or doing anything illegal here in Korea.
Anyway, you guys are so busy disparaging fat-ass canuck-gooks, culturally-insensitive miguk-gooks, pot-smoking hopheads, and overcharging liars, er, lawyers, that you’re missing the real point(s):
What’s happening to all the pot the authorities are confiscating? Who gets it? Is there a government auction, like for repossessed cars, houses, and the like? If so, and one buys through these channels, is it considered illegal?
Now that is information worth being overcharged for!
MJ is not a panacea, like you claim it to be.
The only drug form of it being used is this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dronabinol
But, MJ users say this drug is not enough. Let me smoke the joint, they say.
Probably so.
I never did illegal drugs. Only tried the legal ones and not addicted to any.
No MJ would not kill me.
Fact, is MJ is now like an important commodity to you, like seasonal fruit.
You gotta have it, every once in a while.
But, it’s illegal in many countries.
Now, you’re in trouble, when you get caught.
Not totally harmless to YOU in the grand scheme of things.
I think it’s irresponsible to promote MJ as a panacea.
*sigh*
First of all, the word “panacea” never passed through the lips of my keyboard.
And, second of all, you are one of the “myopic sheep” to whom I was…
Oh, never mind. It’s like trying to explain the English alphabet to a one-pound note wrapped around a shit-stuffed sock in a rubbish bin…
There’s one thing I’ve learned from all the fuss over this topic over the many years I’ve been working in Korea, and posting at the Marmot’s Hole: There are a whole lot of jackasses who think it’s their God-given right to demand that someone else (me and my colleagues) donate money from our pockets to clean up a mess the jackasses could have avoided themselves. Get over yourselves.
There’s a shortage of English-speaking professionals. If you want English-language services, you have to pay for them. The market sets the rate.
If you don’t want to pay the market rate for English-language services, there are a number of excellent — and mediocre, and terrible, so you have many choices — Korean-speaking attorneys who defend foreign criminals. There is also a free public defender who will be assigned to give you 40 minutes of his or her time (they have to defend 80 criminals per month, for a salary of W4,000,000). This public defender won’t speak English and 40 minutes isn’t enough time to give a crap about you, but hey — it’s free! The court also has a free interpreter available for you. The interpreter doesn’t speak English either. Be sure to blame me for that.
The Simpsons joke was an homage!
B. Carr needs to quit whining about all the English Teachers that call him. If he really doesn’t like them calling him, he would take himself off the American Embassy list of Attorneys or put an asterisk by his name stating that he doesn’t represent English Teachers/Employees.
# 39 B. Carr
Better yet, why don’t you tell everyone through the USA Embassy list of Attorneys just how you feel about those you mentioned?
Simply place the following information on the list…
“B. Carr is anti-English teacher. He is also anti-hagwon owner, anti-drug user, anti-soju-breath, anti-Democrat, anti-socialist, anti-robber baron, anti-Korean, and anti-Canadian. He likes money but dislikes working too much for that money. So, you see, the reason B. Carr stays away from hagwon disputes is that he has no one to root for.
And yes, being on the Embassy list is a royal pain in the ass. The vast majority (like 99.99%) of people who call from that list are complete wastes of space.”
Okay B. Carr, I’ll give you a week. If you don’t at least put an asterisk my your name, then just quit your whining about the phone calls!
You must think I maintain that list. I don’t.
Looks like a job opportunity for Lionel Hutz (RIP Phil Hartman): lawyer to the greatly wronged ESL crowd. He’d get plenty of business, but he’d probably have to keep his shoe repair business to survive.
dissidentdave, I’m not myopic. I’m simply not addicted and chain bound to hash.
I would have no problem with prescribing amphetamines, dronabinol, or opioids as medicinally indicated.
You guys say legalize it, but it’s usually not just hash that you want legalized. Even in countries that legalize it, there is some control and restrictions of use. What you really want, is the right to smoke it anywhere, preferabbly without current restrictions on cigarette use in public.
Be honest, man.
You guys cry about oil and blood, and war.
Have you ever thought about how your $ spent on hash and other drugs affect other people in society?
Do you buy hash, and therefore fund criminal activity?
Yes, you do.
Do drug dealers kill people?
Why, … Yes ! Hash, blood, and war.
Drug using Liberals fund druglords and perpetuate misery in many parts of the world.
You might say your drug use in North America is keeping South America alive. I’d have to think about that one. Druglords are better than good, old-fashioned industry on the economy?
You say you grow your own super potency pot. Ok. Do you realize how much electricity is being wasted just so you can get high? Comes from oil. How do you justify that use of oil? You’re no different from a gas guzzler driver. Total waste of earth’s resources.
Again, people who have never used pot, probably won’t even NEED it.
This thread is high comedy.
Yeah, esp when you know that in real life Brendon is a mensch and nice guy; he just plays a hardass on the net ’cause it amuses him to do so (my theory).
Been on friendly terms with him for six years or so, have never needed his Services — being careful and respectful-of-the-spirits to ensure that I never do…
“The only drug form of it being used is this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dronabinol
But, MJ users say this drug is not enough. Let me smoke the joint, they say.”
No and no.
Other drugs have been developed…and there’s this:
http://www.medicalmarihuana.ca/organic.html
It’s been known for a long time as offering for its ability to offer pain relief to those who suffer from arthritis. In fact, old Chinese texts list marijuana as ‘undoing rheumatism’. Specific hybrids have been grown specifically to heighten the plant’s anti-inflammatory properties.
Medicinal marijuana aren’t ‘druggies’. That’s conservative propaganda. It’s tantamount to saying that every codeine user is a cokehead like George W. Bush used to be.
This thread would be better suited over at Dave’s ESL Cafe…feel the love.
“Yeah, esp when you know that in real life Brendon is a mensch and nice guy; he just plays a hardass on the net ’cause it amuses him to do so (my theory).”
I also think he gets a kick out of pushing people’s buttons…maybe to see how far he can get away with playing the stereotypical shark of a lawyer. Were he a true a-hole, he wouldn’t bother giving out free legal advice on his blog.
“This thread would be better suited over at Dave’s ESL Cafe…feel the love.”
Gosh, were talking about pot while Nomad is on ecstasy.
If pot smoking were tolerated in Korea, worker productivity would fall well below OECD averages, drivers would become sloppy and unattentive, young women would turn to prostitution while young men wasted their days playing computer games, garbage would pile up around telephone poles, the integrity and academic credentials of public figures would slump, business leaders would turn to embezzlement and violent crime, public policy would be captured by radical fringe groups, journalists would be lazy and unethical and often just make stuff up …. the horror!
People rationalizing that they should be able to smoke dope in Korea for X, Y, and Z reasons reminds me of illegal immigrants claiming a right to be in the U.S.
It’s ILLEGAL! If you get caught, STFU and take your licks.
Richardson++
# 49
” I don’t maintain the site ”
Are you powerless?
Why must you tell me what I must think? Why would I think you maintain that site?
Aren’t you going to contact the Embassy and ask them to edit your advertisement? Please do, so that you don’t waste the time of English Teachers/Employees!
I would say that you are somewhat responsible for the information concerning yourself on the American Embassy list of Attorneys. What astounds me is why you would enter into such an agreement? You should have written up a contract with the Embassy granting yourself some rights to maintain the website.
You stated something like… “Boo, hoo there must be some website out there directing English Teacher to me etc…”
Again, at the least I would like to see an asterisk by your name stating you don’t represent employees in labor disputes. Or else, STOP WHINING about the phone calls you get!
I agree with Richardson totally. A friend of mine said that smoking pot in Korea is simply inconsiderate… How would you feel if a guest in your home took a piss on your sofa?
36: As for getting high marks while high, it’s pretty easy as an English major. It’s amazing how immersed you can get in reading Chaucer or writing a thesis on Postmodernism while stoned. Of course, a quick review while sober is absolutely needed, due to the usual brain malfunctions that happen…
33: I guess you lack information (I’m from Canada) and it just seems most of the Canadian English teachers I’ve met here are music history or quantum philosophy majors…
#60,
Actually, quite a few Koreans are for the legalization of marijuana. They remember the real reason why it was made illegal in the 70’s.
“33: I guess you lack information (I’m from Canada) and it just seems most of the Canadian English teachers I’ve met here are music history or quantum philosophy majors…”
Lack information about Canadian universities? 1) I was being sarcastic, 2) I’m Canadian.
Besides, I know far too many Canadians who were actively sought by American universities to think that a Canadian degree isn’t as valuable as an American one. Heck, I even met the first African-American woman to become the student representative on the board of directors of Harvard U (or something like that)… She’s actually Canadian.
And that reason was?
I would think that, the crime being possession, simply being, you know, in possession of the goods would be pretty conclusive proof of the crime. The challenge then comes down to you proving that the drugs weren’t actually yours by doing stuff like calling the police as soon as you open the package, pissing clear on a drug test soon after being arrested, and not having any suspiciously large amounts of money laying around your abode. But I don’t know much about Korea police procedure…. do they generally give you enough time to either smoke a bowl and prove your guilt, or do what the law says you should and immediately report the ‘mix-up’?
dissidentdave, I’m not myopic. I’m simply not addicted and chain bound to hash.
I would have no problem with prescribing amphetamines, dronabinol, or opioids as medicinally indicated.
You guys say legalize it, but it’s usually not just hash that you want legalized. Even in countries that legalize it, there is some control and restrictions of use. What you really want, is the right to smoke it anywhere, preferabbly without current restrictions on cigarette use in public.
Be honest, man.
You guys cry about oil and blood, and war.
Have you ever thought about how your $ spent on hash and other drugs affect other people in society?
Do you buy hash, and therefore fund criminal activity?
Yes, you do.
Do drug dealers kill people?
Why, … Yes ! Hash, blood, and war.
Drug using Liberals fund druglords and perpetuate misery in many parts of the world.
You might say your drug use in North America is keeping South America alive. I’d have to think about that one. Druglords are better than good, old-fashioned industry on the economy?
You say you grow your own super potency pot. Ok. Do you realize how much electricity is being wasted just so you can get high? Comes from oil. How do you justify that use of oil? You’re no different from a gas guzzler driver. Total waste of earth’s resources.
Again, people who have never used pot, probably won’t even NEED it.
someguyinKorea, it appears you are providing a link to using the real stuff, herbal marijuana, which is ILLEGAL in many, many, many countries. Instead of linking to other drugs produced for safe usage, to be purchased at a pharmacy with a doctor’s prescription.
All mind altering medications, except alcohol, are regulated in quantity and dosage. This is pretty much a rule throughout the world. MJ should be of no exception. Self medication is not in the best interests of patients or society. I’m not gonna step up to the plate for alcohol. A popular choice for self medication. You can buy as much as you want, unless you’re in a sports stadium, but there are ways to get around that, too. I only drink to get that good feeling, and feel no need to drink anymore. Others literally drink until they lose their minds. Why society allows this, in light of social problems resulting from it, I don’t know.
And westeners, don’t try to have it both ways. While slamming Chinese East Asian herbal medicine as a placebo as a whole, you have clearly tried to legitimize MJ by citing speculative usage in East Asian herbal medicine in the past. If you want to say that, admit that Chinese Herbal medicine IS medicine. There is medicine in there. It’s not concentrated and specific like a western medicine pill, but it was never meant to be.
Your hash habit causes poverty, funds criminals, promotes crimes, and keeps 3rd world countries as 3rd world countries. Stop wasting oil and electricity to grow a non-essential crop.
my other long list won’t get approved for some reason.
I’d just like to say that you be honest with yourself. Bush got codeine because he was ill at some point.
Do you have a real medical illness that requires you to use the active ingredients in MJ?
Or, do you simply seek to use it for pleasure?
sucks for you.
57 slim: brilliant, thanks for the laugh.
I do find it curious that the attitude of our self-declared “Libertarians” is that if the gvmt sez it’s against the law, for whatever weak reason or no reason — we should just STFU and obey the law, make no protest, make no struggle for aquittals, raise no questions. Big Brother is always right on His regulation of our personal pleasures, eh?
Potential clients wanting to accept Mr. Carr’s advice to do a bit of their own comparison shopping might have a look at The Korean Law Blog, and decide which lawyer’s tone more appeals to them as prospective employers of the attorneys’ friendly services. The Sept 6 post begins thusly:
Dear Professor Sean Hayes: I have been charged with the consumption and possession of drugs. I am being held at a detention center south of Seoul. I was arrested in Itaewon and tested positive for THC (marijuana). My home was searched and they found marijuana in my house.
http://ahnse.blogspot.com/
I don’t believe that non-Korean licensed attorneys can represent criminal defendants in Korean courts and looking at Hayes’ blog, I can’t help but wonder where the line is crossed when advising on Korean law without being a licensed Korean attorney.
The firm with which Sean Hayes is loosely affiliated does accept criminal-defense clients,
including GI grandma-beaters and lying Canadian hopheads. I have no idea what they charge — but I imagine it’s not cheap, as he makes reference to second mortgage on the family home — nor do I have any idea whether they are any good. Probably they’re good enough.If I’ve chased off the lucrative pot-smoking English teacher segment of “potential clients” by my honesty here and on my own blog, I’ll take it. In fact, Sean Hayes can have all of them.
Businesspeople might take a look at the content of my Korea Law Blog and Sean’s “Korean Law Blog” and make a judgment about which one contains more actual knowledge relevant to their situation. As for me, I read that “Dear Sean” letter with the fictional pot-smoker and quickly found one naive error that made me laugh out loud, and in fact when another foreign lawyer raised that column he noted the exact same error. But hey, you takes your chances.
UPDATE 4 MAR 2008: Sean has corrected me: Ahnse is not the law firm which represented the GI grandma-beater, nor are the drug defendants the firm represents “lying Canadian hopheads”. These were inferences I drew from Sean’s quotes in Stars & Stripes concerning other criminal matters. I stand corrected.
Not my field, but it’s obvious that while they can’t technically “be your lawyer” in court, the foreign lawyers and paralegals (or whatever) employed by Korean law offices still charge for providing legal services. Both blogs are in effect free legal services, aren’t they?
my comment that is on some kind of hold or blocked out states it, but here goes,
except for alcohol, it is pretty much universal law that mind altering drugs are regulated in quantity and dosage.
Self medication is not in the best interests of the patient or society as a whole.
MJ should be of no exception. And, I’m not gonna defend alcohol at all. For some reason, you can buy as much as money allows and drink as much as you can.
The vast majority of these legalize it movements are aimed for MJ usage not in the medical sense (which is already being done with concentrated, factory produced medicine, with doctor’s prescriptions), but for quite frankly, getting high.
I’m probably repeating myself, but your drug habit funds criminal activities and wastes valuable electricity and resources for a non essential crop.
I do not know what the rules in Korea are, but the general rule in U.S. states is that lawyers from other countries (working in the U.S.) can only provide legal advice concerning the laws of the foreign jurisdictions where they are admitted.
“It’s illegal! It’s illegal! Therefore, you simply mustn’t do it!”
For myself, no victim = no crime. I’ll give a passing thought to crazy Americanan worshippers of laws — any and all laws without exceptions — the next time I get together with my illegal immigrant buddies to burn one. But that passing thought will be the same one I always have, “Why can’t they just live and let live?”
There’s plenty of victims in selling drugs, trafficking drugs, using drugs.
Libs. Take note.
Drugs. Wars. Ruined dreams, ruined careers, babies with defects, wrong choices, wrong decisions, waste of energy.
I do find it curious that the attitude of our self-declared “Libertarians” is that if the gvmt sez it’s against the law, for whatever weak reason or no reason — we should just STFU and obey the law, make no protest, make no struggle for acquittals, raise no questions. Big Brother is always right on His regulation of our personal pleasures, eh?
If you’re a Korean then fine, sanshinseon. Fight the power, etc.
If you’re not a citizen and therefore a guest in this country, then yes, STFU and obey their laws or fucking leave. To paraphrase someone above, if you’re a guest in someone’s home where they tell you you can’t smoke up, and you do, you’re not a romantic freedom fighter - you’re an asshole who should be grabbed by the back of the neck and kicked in the ass out the door.
Capeche?
Korea lacks the infrastructure for a good stoner experience.
#79 - Glass shops?
And drugs being illegal helps tackle these problems how, exactly?
If anything, don’t draconian drugs laws actually exacerbate all these problems you cite?
Be honest, man.
It’s not a draconian law. All drugs that alter mental functions should be regulated in dosage and quantity. That’s a universal trend in almost all countries. The only exception is alcohol. Like I said, I’m not gonna defend that one. People shouldn’t be able to drink all they want. For personal and public safety, these drugs are best not self medicated.
MJ has no place for a healthy person.
If anything, it probably makes you obese.
If you were shooting for goombah style, you missed. Next time say Capisci?
Once in a while I find myself in agreement with wjk, like here. Always a pleasure…
If you want draconian laws, go to Malaysia, Thailand or Singapore.
I’m not a wop, so I don’t care about the correct spelling.
It’s not your country, dda. Therein lies the key point. Koreans have emphatically decided they don’t want pot here. We’re guests in the country. I don’t want Draconian laws, in fact I wish Korea was as relaxed as Canada about it and I could smoke up here all the time. It would make much more sense for me to tell you ‘If you want relaxed laws, go to Canada or the Netherlands.’
But until Korean society changes its attitude about pot, I’ll respect (in the sense of follow) how they wish to run the place while I’m here. If I or anyone else doesn’t like it, there is a remarkably comprehensive bus service to Incheon airport from most neighborhoods in Seoul.
wjk, I think a lot of things can be inserted in place of Drugs, like Soju:
Soju. Wars. Ruined dreams, ruined careers, babies with defects, wrong choices, wrong decisions, waste of energy.
I don’t want more relaxed laws, I loathe Holland [and while my opinion of Canada is not that high, I've never been there, so I'll wait and see...], and indeed, since it’s not my country — as was reminded to me every day, sometimes several times a day, during the 12 years I lived there, I won’t lobby for stricter laws; but I can applaud when the po-lice enforces their laws [which, after all, is not all too often...].
Women. Wars. Ruined dreams, ruined careers,
babies with defects, wrong choices, wrong decisions, waste of energy.Religion. Wars. Ruined dreams, ruined careers, babies with defects, wrong choices, wrong decisions, waste of energy.
Masturbation. Wars. Ruined dreams, ruined careers, babies with defects, wrong choices, wrong decisions, waste of energy.
‘B. Carr is anti-English teacher…’
Brendon, does this explain why the request in my reply to your email went unanswered?
Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t meaning to imply that laws banning marijuana in Korea are draconian. And, yes, I too think that as guests in Korea, we foreigners are obliged to follow the laws of the land, or leave.
My point is that all these ills you attribute to drugs are more accurately blamed on self-defeating prohibition laws. If drugs were legal and regulated, there would be no need for the vast criminal networks that control most of Afghanistan and large swathes of South America, and otherwise harmless people wouldn’t be going to jail for the victimless crime of smoking marijuana.
So, let me ask you again, don’t draconian drug laws (where they exist) actually exacerbate all the problems you cite?
When the laws are really draconian — in spirit and in their application — like in Singapore, the problems go away very fast…
Hugh,
Your statement:
“Koreans have emphatically decided they don’t want pot here.”
implies some kind of unanimous group decision. Given that you have spoken on behalf of all Korean citizens, I shall take the liberty of speaking on behalf of only those several Korean citizens I have smoked marijuana with: They beg to differ.
In order to make your statement true, you would have to change it to read “some Koreans” or possibly “a majority of Koreans.”
It would be interesting indeed to conduct a survey — with guaranteed anonymity — asking Korean citizens: “Should marijuana be legalized and regulated in a manner similar to alcohol?” I think you might be surprised at the number of people who would answer yes. It could turn out to be a set of people similar to what it would be in North America — those who realize the folly of prohibition.
Hugh, being a legal foreign resident in a nation has very little comparability to being a guest in someone’s home, not at all the same.
Capisci?
One might also argue there’s a difference between being against the criminalization of pot and lobbying my local lawmaker to change the laws, and being against the criminalization of pot and ignoring existing laws to illegally smoke it.
I have tried to convince the several local (California) lawmakers I have smoked marijuana with to get the laws changed. Most of them are doing what they can–albeit very subtly. In the few cases where these illegally smoking lawmakers have taken a strong stand against prohibition and in favor of legalization, they have soon ceased to be lawmakers.
#92 -
Let’s be clear here. Are you advocating the legalization of heroin and cocaine as well as marijuana? Because the “vast criminal networks” you reference here have nothing to do with ganja.
As for the “the victimless crime of smoking marijuana,” I suspect that the parents of countless basement-dwelling pot-smoking losers might take exception to that characterization.
All kidding aside, the survivors of car accidents caused by driving under the influence of marijuana—and the grieving families of those who didn’t survive such accidents—might object even more strongly. But then again, the same could be said of the victimless non-crime of drinking alcohol.
Despite my personal distaste for marijuana and its devotees, given the alternatives:
- criminalized, with inconsistent and ineffective enforcement (the status quo);
- criminalized with draconian penalties and enforcement (for a comparatively minor matter); or
- decriminalized and regulated as necessary for health and safety, a la alcohol;
I’ll take option the third.
To answer your question, Ut videam, yes, I do support legalizing all drugs, for the simple reason that prohibition has achieved the exact opposite of what it set out to do. In most parts of most Western countries, drugs are now more plentiful, cheaper and more potent than ever before. A neat side effect of this has been endemic corruption and rampant organized crime in the likes of Columbia and Afghanistan. And as an added bonus, tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people have been thrown in jail for youthful indiscretions (let’s not mention George Bush and the cocaine allegations) and turned into real criminals.
Though I don’t take any drugs now, I have done in the past. I don’t condone their use, but I do think that grown adults should be free to harm themselves in any way they wish. Of course, if someone drives under the influence of marijuana, coke, booze or anything else, that’s an entirely different matter.
kpmsprtd,
#94
Koreans have collectively said they don’t want pot here by electing folks who are against legalizing it over and over again. Since these decisions are arrived at collectively by the Korean people and binding to all members of Korean society (including guests), I don’t see any need to add “some” or “a majority” to the statement that they don’t want pot.
A group decision in a democratic society does not have to be unanimous. The people have spoken, Korea doesn’t want pot.
BTW, from what you wrote in #97, it seems that the people of California are not to happy with pot either.
BTW, as far as my personal views on legalizing pot, I just don’t have a dog in that fight.
It would be interesting indeed to conduct a survey — with guaranteed anonymity — asking Korean citizens: “Should
marijuana be legalized and regulated in a manner similar to alcoholforeigners be prevented from marrying Korean women?” I think you might be surprised at the number of people who would answer yes.#67,#68,
Some herbal medicine, regardless of whether it is Chinese or not, does indeed work… only some. Most of it is just bunk, though.
Marijuana is one of the herbal medicines that have been clinically proven to help in the treatment of certain illnesses. Don’t believe it, look it up yourself.
Bush was a cokehead at one point in his life, regardless of whether he took codeine for medical reasons or not.
Do I have an illness that can be treated with marijuana? I don’t see how that matters, but yes, I do.
#82,
“All drugs that alter mental functions should be regulated in dosage and quantity. ”
Oh, okay… So, how long do you figure it will take to have riots if the Korean government made the use and possession of tobacco, alcohol and caffeine illegal as of now?