DUBAI, UAE — A retired Navy veteran from Covington is being detained in Dubai following his arrest for possessing medically prescribed CBD pills.
“They got me on a no-travel ban right now, because they’re basically saying I was trafficking drugs with my prescription medicine,” Charles Wimberly told Channel 2′s Tom Regan.
Wimberly said a Georgia doctor prescribed the CBD and prescription-strength Ibuprofen for his chronic back pain.
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He has surgery scheduled for this month.
He was on vacation in Dubai with friends for a week.
On September 27, while he was at an airport checkpoint to take a flight back to Georgia, a screener asked him to empty his pockets.
Several pills fell to the floor.
“He said what kind of medicine is this? I said Ibuprofen and CBD. He said CBD is not allowed. He called police and they were like, ‘Are you trafficking drugs?’ I said this is my medicine. I showed my prescription, everything. They said ‘That is not good enough you’re trafficking drugs,’” Wimberly said.
Wimberly says he was taken to a jail holding cell where he suffered diabetic shock.
After he was revived, he was transferred to another jail.
“There were like 240 people in there. I said can you give me something. My back is killing me. I can hardly walk,” Wimberly said.
Even though police told him he faced a lengthy prison sentence, he was released without bond and taken back to the airport where authorities had arrested him.
He went to a hotel where he has been for two weeks.
He has not been given a court date and has no idea what will happen next.
His passport has been flagged and he is unable leave the country.
“I talked to the U.S. Embassy. And a woman there told me we can’t get involved. That’s all she said.” Wimberly said.
Regan spoke to the vet’s father, Lonnie Wimberly, a retired Army veteran who lives in Augusta, about his son’s detainment.
“He’s diabetic, he has a serious back injury. He has PTSD issues. It’s not something to take lightly to deny his medications. It’s very concerning to me. The number of pills he had, five maybe, doesn’t meet their threshold for trafficking. So, what they holding him for? It doesn’t make sense to me,” Lonnie Wimberly said.
An organization called “Detained in Dubai” which helps foreigners traveling aboard, is now working through diplomatic channels to resolve the case and allow Wimberly to return home.
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That includes the U.S. Department of State, which has issued warnings for U.S. citizens not to take even prescribed CBD products to Dubai where it is considered illegal.
Wimberly is hoping Dubai prosecutors will conclude there is no evidence of his intent to distribute his CBD and will just make him pay a fine and allow him to return to Georgia.
“It’s scary. My PTSD is at another level,” Wimberly said.
A representative of Georgia U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff said his office would begin looking into the matter this week.
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