It’s A Good Idea To Find Out Whether Or Not A Drug Is Illegal Before Flying With 85 Pounds Of It

Just because your entire family likes chewing on a bit of leaf overseas doesn’t mean it’s going to be an A-OK substance to fly with. A Minnesota man might’ve wanted to do a bit of Googling before deciding to pack up 85 pounds of a drug called Khat and fly with it. Officials at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport stopped him and he was all, “Shrug! I saw people doing it this one time so…”

Of course that’s just paraphrasing. How it really went down is the 20-year-old man told cops he just didn’t know Khat was illegal, so figured flying with a bunch of it packed into two bags on a British Airways flight from London seemed fine to him, reports CBS Chicago.

Khat, or Cathinone, is a plant often chewed as a stimulant, and has a mild euphoric effect akin to coffee, according to the Internet. The man said he’d bought the Khat in suburban London for about £200, after using it with friends and family at a wedding earlier this year without realizing it was illegal.

It’s listed as a Schedule 1 narcotic in the United States and was listed as a “drug of abuse” by the World Health Organization. The amount the man had with him has a street value of $12,211, according to court documents.

The Internet is your friend. Use it before you bring 85 pounds of chewable anything, anywhere.

Man With 85 Pounds Of Drugs At O’Hare Said He Didn’t Know It Was Illegal [CBS Chicago]

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