White powder mix-up cost man four years
A former heroin addict jailed for four years following his arrest with nearly half a kilo of a suspicious white powder has been freed after an appeals court accepted a state chemist’s previously rejected testimony that the substance is not prohibited. According to reports yesterday, the 50-year-old man, whose name was not made public, now intends to seek 43,159 euros (14.7 million drachmas) in compensation for the 1,471 days he spent in the Athens Korydallos prison. The man, who was trying to kick his heroin addiction by taking monoacetylmorphine (MAM), a component of heroin that is legal in Greece, was arrested in March 1998 when police found 430 grams of MAM – which they mistook for heroin – in his house. He was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for drug trafficking and fined 1.6 million drachmas (4,700 euros). The court refused to hear testimony from a State Chemical Laboratory chemist that the powder was not heroin but MAM.
