We have been following developments in the US as it applies to Thailand-based expatriates and visitors to Thailand. Following a trend of increased governmental control of US citizens abroad, the US congress has enacted several tax measures imposing unusually severe requirements on international banks. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which was enacted in January of this year, requires all foreign banks to report the holdings of American clients holding foreign bank accounts to the IRS in America, despite the costs of such procedures to the banks and the possibility that such measures might violate privacy laws within some countries. The US HIRE Act, moreover, will force foreign banking institutions to report information on US clients, making it extremely difficult for US citizens to hold bank accounts abroad, even if they are long time residents of a foreign country.
The latest proposed law, the “Drug Trafficking Safe Harbor Elimination act of 2011”, involves restrictions and punitive measures for US citizens engaging in or encouraging drug use abroad, even when this drug use does not violate laws in the country where it is practiced. On October 6th, the U.S. House of Representative’s Judiciary Committee passed the bill, which would render the discussion or planning of activities to be carried out on foreign soil that that are illegal under America’s Controlled Substances Act a federal offense, even if these activities are entirely legal within the countries where they would be carried out. Under the bill, prosecutors would be allowed to bring conspiracy charges against anyone who “discusses, plans, or advises” someone else to engage in CSA-violating activities overseas.
The scope of the bill is ludicrously broad. A particularly bizarre facet of the bill is that although the actual partaking of controlled substances while abroad may be legal under the law of the of the nation where this takes place – it’s the planning of them within the US itself that will be considered a crime under US law.
Illicit drug use in Thailand is neither legal nor decriminalized, as it is in countries like Portugal, the Netherlands, or Spain. In fact, Thailand’s drug laws and the Marijuana laws in Thailand are quite strict. However, many American citizens purchase pharmaceutical medicines in Thailand over-the-counter in Thailand, and this activity may be made illegal pursuant to the new proposed law.
Under the bill, if an American university student mapping out a summer backpacking through Europe plans to swing by Amsterdam to check out the city’s famous “coffee shops” she could be charged with a federal offense. What’s more, if she mentions her plans to with any loved ones, they too – Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, little brothers and sisters – can be taken into custody for allegedly conspiring to violate the CSA. Academics studying the benefits of needle-exchange programs abroad, medical professionals corresponding with associates abroad on the use of medical marijuana, or a friend who emails a pal in Thailand with advice on where to pick up hormonal contraceptives would all be liable for criminal prosecution under the bill.
If passed, the law will carry ramifications for US citizen arrested abroad for violating other country’s drug law (for example Thailand’s drug law), by imposing on the US citizens additional charges in the US for their crimes.
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Are you aware that a number of U.S. state department consular information sheets for foreign countries, including that for Thailand, now report that one can be prosecuted under U.S. law if one purchases pirated merchandise abroad? I am aware that one can be fined if one tries to bring such a thing back to the U.S. But, if I am in mexico and buy a Paulina Rubio (a popular Mexican singer) cd from a vendor for a girlfriend there, I may be breaking U.S. law if the cd is counterfeit. Actually, I suspect there may be a wording error, as I have been unable to find news reports of any such law. Nonetheless, I am not sure and would like to know. Some attorney friends have told me such laws are unconstitutional, I suspect because of the principle of jurisdiction, but they keep coming.