Jack Laurence

Heroin is classified as a Category 1 narcotic under Thai law, the most dangerous classification available, sitting alongside methamphetamine and MDMA.

For trafficking a Category 1 substance, the penalties range from life imprisonment to the death penalty.

The death penalty applies to those convicted of possession of more than 20 grams of the Category 1 substance with intent to sell.

Thailand carried out its last execution in 2018, but death sentences continue to be handed down by the courts to this day.

As recently as March of 2025, a trafficker was sentenced to death for heroin offences, demonstrating that capital punishment remains very much an active tool of Thai drug law.

And Holly wasn't just using in Thailand.

She would eventually start exporting it back to Australia.

She would spend four years in Thailand.

However, she would travel back and forth to Australia around twice a year.

And when she got back home, she didn't want the hassle of buying crap heroin off the street and paying street prices.

So she came up with a plan on just how to get her own cheap heroin back home.

Little did she know, she wasn't going anywhere.

Except getting herself a one-way ticket to Thai prison.

Next time on What I Survived.

So when I began creating this series, I was searching far and wide for stories of incredible survival, and I'm sure you'll agree that we've certainly found many of those.

And at the very start of this project, I said these situations are ones that people either found themselves in unwillingly, such as Michael Thexton and the 1986 Pan Am plane hijacking, or Barry Hoffs and his 10-year ordeal in an Indian prison.

And then, well, then there's those who have actively placed themselves in potentially highly dangerous and life-threatening situations.

And today's guest, well, he most certainly falls smack bang in that category.

Chapter one.

I was there to work on my fear.