A Vancouver man who advised Afghan farmers on how to give up growing opium poppy crops was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison in the United Arab Emirates for drug possession and smuggling.

Bert Tatham, shown here in this undated photo, was working with the Afghan government to encourage farmers to give up planting opium poppies.

Bert Tatham, 35, was arrested April 23 during a layover at Dubai International Airport after being found with less than .6 of a gram of hashish and two poppy bulbs.

He was on his way back to Canada  from Kandahar, where he had worked as a consultant for the U.S. State Department's Afghan poppy elimination program.

Charlie Tatham said he had not been able to speak to his son since Sunday, but a friend in Dubai had been able to piece together what had transpired in the court from reporters and other officials.

Tatham said his son told him he was "devastated" by inaccurate media reports that his job was to eradicate the drug, when his work actually involved promoting alternatives to poppy cultivation among farmers.

"I can't find the adjectives to describe how full of anxiety he was," he told CBC News Tuesday from his home in Duntroon, Ont.

Poppies kept for 'souvenirs,' says mother

Charlie and Louise Tatham are hoping their son Bert will get a pardon in September.
(CBC)

His mother, Louise Tatham, said her son kept the poppy bulbs as a souvenir of his time in Afghanistan, as well as a "prop" for speaking engagements.

"They were two years old," she said. "They were lanced. There was nothing in them. They were useless."

The hashish piece found in the seam of his trousers was "the size of your teenie fingernail," she said, adding that the drug was prevalent in Kandahar. "People were giving it to him at various places — at meetings."

His father noted that Tatham had been through Dubai six times this year and was aware of the country's strict anti-drug laws.

"Of all people, Bert knew intimately the implications of something like that happening," he said.  "He was fastidious, he felt, in making sure he was clean."

Tatham's parents insisted they are not going to give up trying for his release and called for the Canadian government to step in.

"Even at that, interfering with the legal or judicial affairs of another country … I'm sure that's a delicate matter," his father said.

They said they will try to have him released during the religious holiday of Ramadan in September, when the UAE grants some prisoners amnesty.

Defence lawyer disappointed

Sharif Emara, a member of the Dubai-based legal team defending Tatham, expressed disappointment at Tuesday's verdict.

"We had good defence and he got the full punishment," Emara said. He added that Tatham's lawyer, Saeed al-Gailani, will appeal the sentence within 15 days.

It was al-Gailani who argued in court last week that his client inadvertently carried the near-microscopic amount of drugs because his job involved burning and disposing of tons of seized Afghan opium crops.

"His trousers must have mistakenly picked up the tiny quantity of hashish," al-Gailani said.

Traces of hashish found in Tatham's urine were inhaled as "second-hand smoke," Tatham's lawyer said. Hashish is produced from marijuana plants, not opium poppies.

With files from the Associated Press