Re: Why sg hangs for drugs destined for australian streets?



You have a problem understanding simple laws. I'll tell you like you're a kindergarten:

"Drug smuggling is punishable by DEATH penalty."

Do you understand that boy? So stop complicating very simple things and stop making a
fool of yourself eh!?!



On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 02:21:32 +0800, rohan <rohan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The Singapore government is indirectly making an australian domestic
policy decision by saying an Australian moving drugs onto the streets
of Australia must die.

The drugs Mr Nguyen was shifting could likely help people in the
streets of Melbourne or Sydney or any other Australian city become
either helplessly addicted or even die. But they wouldn't be killing
Singaporeans.

Therefore, any arguments that suppose the death penalty for Mr Nguyen
could be seen as a preventative measure to protect Singapore citizens
from the wrath of potent drug addiction are false.

And in fact, killing Nguyen won't attack the masterminds of drug
movement worldwide at all. Those people won't care squat. They'll just
keep moving their stuff. If anything, another hanging will shift the
supply curve and make their wares more valuable and profitable. Sadly,
other businessmen at the top of drugs not directly impacted by this 400
gram loss may be visiting their private banker to adjust their accounts
northward the Friday morning another desperate drug mule at the bottom
of the money/power ladder hangs.

Moreso, the whole ultimate punishment philosophy is dangerous. Even in
a country like Singapore which shuns corruption, it could open up a
netherworld of extremely high stakes completely unfathomable to
ordinary people.. Where systems are created for movement of contraband
and prices are moved ever higher. The ultimate one who pays are the
addict on the streets in the demand country, the taxpayers in the
various countries the drug masterminds operate, plus the people up and
down the streets in the demand economy who get their car and house
windows smashed and stuff stolen to pay for the incredibly high price
of the substances that many addicts would literally and in some cases
actually kill for.

Solution: two boned approach:

1) Legalise/medicalise in demand country

Bring addicts back to the family doctor. They have a medical problem of
addiction. They may have started off as criminals, but by now they have
a serious medical condition and have to be carefully, tenderly weaned
off.

The drugs may have to be dispensed pharmaceutically. Take it gradually.
Any addiction in the community is  our collective responsibility.
Ignoring it creates a selfish, inward, callous almost tribal whispering
culture. It's an addiction that affects the same part of the brain as
alcohol, gambling or even lust. A lot of us have at least one or
another. Care and don't marginalise.

Importantly, move addicts off dependence on illegal drugs with no
quality control found on the street. They are big tax free money gained
for guys sitting in high places, and also big money spent for people
who are helplessly addicted. Dispensing drugs- especially those which
cause insane levels of dependency- should be the carefully governed job
of the doctor, pharmacy and the government.

2) Lower punishment for traffickers

This may become completely redundant if the "demand nation" takes a
more liberal and medical approach to combatting drug addiction as
outlined in point 1)

But there will always be non-addictive or recreational drugs which a
government could not justify legalising and which will remain on the
black market. People who move these along with other regulated products
(those in point 1 would of course remain regulated) across borders
should still be punished.

But, seriously, if steps taken under point 1 are executed properly,
would it remain such a heinious crime as death? The same penalty a
cold-blooded murderer gets? Or violent rapist?

Conclusions

It's all in the money. Money is the real culprit here. Addiction is a
horrible crime to the individual afflicted, but obscenely large amounts
of money continue to propagate that market for addiction. And obscenely
large amounts of money are made when things are highly illegal (ie.
when supply curves shift making prices more profitable when people can
get hanged off a rope for doing something involved in it)

Sure, a community all addled with drugs is not going to go very far,
and Singapore clearly doesn't wish to be that society, but, still,
death for drug traffickers certainly falls outside the bounds for
reasonableness and may even escascerbate the problem due to that
penalty's tendancy to raise prices and profitability and thus future
ever more sophisticated criminal activity.

Rohan


.

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