Podcast: Drug Smuggler...

Hello and welcome to Green-Eyed English, a podcast for intermediate and higher English speakers. Interesting topics, with real, understandable spoken English. I'm Dan Green and today I want to tell you about one time that I was a drug smuggler; well almost a drug smuggler.

Now, in the UK, drugs are very common. And not just in cities, but also in small towns, like the small town where I grew up. In fact, drugs might actually be easier to buy in small towns than in cities like London and Manchester!

So, pretty much every British person you'll meet will have tried an illegal drug in their life. Not absolutely everyone, but pretty much everyone. And that includes me. In fact, I have probably tried more drugs than the average British person!

Now, I'm not going to give you the list of drugs that I have tried or when I tried them, but let's just say that in my late teens and early twenties I tried… a few! And so did my circle of friends, and also one of my ex-girlfriends. Which brings us onto the time I was almost a drug smuggler.

I was around 18 or 19 years old when this happened. I was dating a girl who we will call Julie and was living on the south coast of England – in my hometown. Near to my hometown is a ferry port, where you can catch a ferry to France, so one weekend we decided to go to France for a short trip. I had passed my driving test a year or two before, so we decided to take my car onto the ferry so we could drive around in France when we got there.

We drove onto the ferry, parked the car, then went up on the boat and hung out in the café and restaurant for the 4 hour journey. I can't actually remember that specific trip on the ferry, but I have taken that ferry journey many times. You see, my grandfather was a sailor and used to be a captain on that ferry. And, because he was a sailor, he married my grandmother who is from northern France. So, my family used to visit France a lot when I was young and my favourite part was always going outside on the boat and looking out at the sea. The sea between England and France is usually rough and the wind blows hard, hurting your eyes, but I loved looking out at the dark grey water and seeing it go on forever. I think I have my grandfather's sea legs, meaning that I love being out on water just like he did. Perhaps I should have been a sailor….

Anyway, when we got to France, we went down to the car and drove off the ferry. At that time, the UK was part of Europe, so you did not have to show your passport and could just drive off. But, as were driving off the boat, two French policemen wavedmy car to a stop. They made my girlfriend and I get out while they started searching the car.

I remember being really annoyed that they had picked my car for a search, but actually I would have picked my car to search too if I were them. Why? Well, I was driving a typical teenage boy car with a noisy exhaust, alloy wheels, and music blasting out… perhaps if I had been driving a nice Toyota, they would not have noticed me.

So, I'm standing there, getting annoyed, and waiting for them to finish searching the car so we can drive off… And I'm not actually worried… at least, not until I look at my girlfriend. She looks terrified. She has gone pale and her eyes are wide….

“What's wrong?” I whisper to her…

…but before she can reply, one of the French policeman shouts “skunk, it is skunk!”

He is holding a small plastic bag filled with very strong marijuana, or ‘skunk' as it is called in the UK.

I looked over at Julie and realised what had happened: she had brought some marijuana to France without telling me and, when she saw the police stopping us, she had tried to hide it in the car.

Things happened very quickly after that: the policemen pushed us up against my car and held our hands behind our backs; other policemen came over holding guns; and they starting pulling my poor car to pieces looking for more drugs.

Time felt like it had stopped. All I was thinking about was what life would be like in a French prison… I also remember worrying about having to call my mum to explain that I had been arrested for drug smuggling…

In the end, though, the police let us go. They even gave us back the marijuana! Can you believe it? I guess, because we only had a small amount of marijuana, they decided there was no point in arresting us. Instead, they just enjoyed scaring us for a while.

Now, I've had some scary experiences in my life, but almost being arrested for drug smuggling is probably in the top five. Even now, I still get nervous when going into a new country… does make a good story though!

How about you? Ever been arrested? Or almost arrested? Visit greeneyedenglish.com to leave me a message or a comment.

Finally, you should also visit greeneyedenglish.com if you are a language learner, because you can download a learning pack for this episode. It has a transcript, a glossary of interesting language, and notes on useful phrases and grammar.

Nice talking to you. Bye bye!