Pioneering Drum & Bass DJ Grooverider has now spent six weeks languishing in a jail cell in Dubai. And with a date for his court appearance still yet to be decided upon, he has criticised the British Consulate for not doing enough to help him.

The Radio 1 DJ stands accused of having cannabis and pornography on him when he arrived to play a gig in the Emirate state back in November.

Despite having become a playground for tourists, complete with a growing club scene, Dubai has ultra strict laws on all the usual vices that apparently outrage morality. Sadly for the ‘Rider, it looks like a forgotten joint in the record bag and some material of an adult nature in amongst his music files could see him banged up for 4 years.

Dubai tabloid newspaper Xpress has been the first to update the story with an interview with Grooverider this week.

“I’m alright, it could have definitely been worse,” he said to them from jail. “I spend my time reading and catching up on things in here… The British Consulate officials are a joke. They just threw me leaflets and that was that. This is ridiculous. I must have forgotten the spliff. It was a small amount. Back home I would not even get prosecuted.”

Other than an article in The Times, there has also been little coverage of Grooverider’s case in the UK mainstream press. Obviously a DJ caught with some naughty contraband in his hand luggage isn’t as appealing as the teacher locked up in the recent ‘Naming a Teddy Bear Mohammed’ incident in Sudan, despite them happening at the same time. Yet among d&b lovers, the incarceration of one of the most important DJs on the scene is big news.

As well as missing his long-standing Radio 1 show, Groove has been unable to play the many gigs he had booked in over the busiest time in the clubbing calendar, causing major headaches for promoters and disappointment for countless ravers.

‘Free Grooverider’ Facebook groups have sprung up, with membership in the 1000’s, and d&b forums have been full of messages of support, but ultimately the importance of the man to music in the UK is of little interest to those enforcing the law in Dubai, unless they use it to make an example of him.

A letter in the current issue of DJ Magazine from leading visuals team Addictive TV tells of their own run-in with customs in Dubai… for bringing in a CD marked ‘Sex Pistols remix’. The word ‘sex’ leading the authorities to believe they’d caught more dangerous porn peddlers, a misunderstanding that took over 3 hours to iron out.

With DJs moving about in the nightlife netherworld, regularly surrounded by drugs in their workplace yet also passing through customs worldwide, there have been many cases like this, often where the DJ is oblivious to the presence of the illegal substance that is found. Usually the charge ends up as a slap on the wrist.

But with the growth of tourist-focussed clubbing scenes in otherwise strictly conservative religious nations, the penalties are now proving to be a lot tougher. The flipside of this is going to be a growing problem for casual visitors too, as while most people will make sure they are not inadvertently bringing drugs on holiday with them, their mobile phones, laptops, iPods and PSPs could potentially contain video content that is suddenly deemed risqué enough for a jail sentence, even though it was just a graphic but totally legal skinflick email back at home.

The clash of global cultures in a shrinking world continues to produce all sorts of weird outcomes, as progress and profit go head-to-head with tradition. Upcoming locations like Dubai are at risk of losing out if they can’t evolve at the rate of our rapidly changing world.

Meanwhile, culture clash victim Grooverider seems upbeat about his chance of being home soon despite the lack of developments in his case, but the Dubai club scene is going to have to do without him from now on.

“I just want this to end and leave, I never want to come back,” he told Xpress.