Custom officials will subject random passengers to drug tests at the island’s two international airports to determine if they are smuggling illegal substances, a November 17 article from the Jamaican news service, The Gleaner Company, reported.
The article stated that Customs officials will request “suspicious-looking passengers” to take a standard urine test. Officials will take those who test positive to an area hospital and check to see if they have ingested illegal drugs. If drugs are retrieved, police will then make an arrest.
Customs official Ivy O’Gilvie told The Gleaner Company that passengers who refuse to take the test will likely be taken to the hospital anyway. She said the on-the-spot test takes only minutes to complete and is “90 percent accurate.”
“It’s hard to imagine that any tourist or business traveler will want to pass through Jamaican Customs under the threat of excreting on demand for law enforcement,” NORML Foundation head Allen St. Pierre said. “A country so reliant on foreign travel should immediately rescind such a foolish invasion of privacy.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.