Selling Drugs is Illegal?

illegal? links to original article

(Sabah Newspaper, 11 April 2012)

Shoe worker Azat Gülen (20) was faced with a 4,000TL bill
as the result of an accident he had with a rented car in Diyarbakır.
When a friend told him 'you can sell drugs on Istiklal Caddesi
(Istanbul's '5th Avenue') and make that much money in an hour',
Gülen purchased 452 grams of marijuana for 700TL in Bağlar
district (Diyarbakır) and headed for Istanbul.

After getting off the bus in Harem, Istanbul, Gülen took the
ferry across to Karaköy where he asked a policeman about
an address. When the policeman asked Gülen what was in his
bag Gülen said 'drugs. I'm going to sell them on Istiklal Caddesi.'
The policeman thought Gülen was joking until he looked into
his bag.

Gülen was taken into custody and in his statement to the public
prosecutor he said 'I work at a shoe shop in Diyarbakır. I didn't
know that selling drugs was a crime. That's why I told the policeman
that I was going to sell drugs when he asked me what I was going
to do on Istiklal Caddesi.' Gülen was arrested and sent to jail. The
Istanbul Public Prosecutor's office has completed its investigation
about Gülen and has opened a court case againt him, asking for
a sentence of from 5 to 15 years for the crime of 'commercial use
of narcotics.'