Charlie Stross

I'm kind of aghast at this, and at the spectacular ignorance and malice displayed by the police and ICE officers involved.

(But—as a retired pharmacist who studied drugs of botanic origin decades ago—I once got to handle a sample of raw Turkish opium. The perfumiers at YSL absolutely nailed the odour, to a first approximation: if the cops had some sort of drug familiarization training it's almost an understandable mistake—at least until it goes to the lab for testing.)
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic/post/3m2a5gcc3rs2h

Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social)

Arkansas police pulled over an Indian GrubHub driver wh ois married to a U.S. citizen. They found a bottle of Opium-brand perfume, arrested him for narcotics possession, and turned him over to ICE, where he was held for 30 days. He has now been stripped of his immigration status. https://www.bentoncourier.com/news/traffic-stop-in-benton-leads-to-ice-detention-deportation-risk/article_d6be2ddb-f9bb-4439-b10f-ca663c41de83.html

Bluesky Social
Oct 3 at 8:24amWeb
Show threadCTDOct 3
@cstross the level of wilful ignorance and bad faith being displayed everywhere is off the scale. It’s deeply disturbing.
Show threadYvonne ‘looks undocumented’Oct 3
@cstross Wait til they find candy cigarettes, or squirt guns. “Contraband! Smugglers!”
Show threadJdeBPOct 3

@cstross

There's an update to the story and arrest video footage here. It does not appear that the police actually opened the bottle to smell it.

The police video shows it to have been a sample bottle.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0BM43T4LHbk

#YvesSaintLaurent #Opium #perfume #Benton #Arkansas

Arkansas man seeking to restore visa status after wrongful arrest led to ICE detainment

YouTube
Show threadJaime RobertsonOct 3
@cstross I’m curious if a drug-sniffing dog would alert to it.
Or did the officers think it was part of the driver’s Cunning Plan to hide drugs in plain site?
Show threadWilhelm GereOct 3

@cstross

Gotta watch my hemp cereal too (or ground hemp protein powder) I guess, if I were going to the US, which I'm not.

It does actually smell like smoking grass if you spill a little of the powder on the stove and turn on the burner.