GET REAL, AUSTRALIA
Singapore's ruling the zeitgeist of the day. We are everywhere on the major newswires on the internet. Singapore's hanging of heroin smuggler Nguyen has caused the small island-nation to be cast as a draconian nation with strict laws. Here's some screenshots from CNN and Google News as of this hour (1430hrs PST) reporting on this piece of news as their major headline of the hour on Planet Earth. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the screen shots.
My opinion:
GET REAL, AUSTRALIA. The REAL issue here is drug smuggling, an universally condemned crime that pollutes our global society down to its roots, NOT how a young man's life is about to be terminated by a momentous act of folly. Nguyen screwed up big time, period. If he went undetected, 400 grams of heroin will endanger 26,000 doses/ lives, Who then will answer to the families, relatives and friends of these 26,000 ++++ pple who suffer?
Heroin is a hardcore drug. The message should be narcotic containment and prevention, not capital punishment. Yes, i admit Singapore is strict, but principles have to stand firm. There's too many pansies out there sitting in goverments across the world who do not send out strong messages enough to drug traffickers. Let Singapore take the brunt of that but show the world a message to future generations why drug trafficking is so serious one developed nation's government believes that punishment by death is justifiable.
My opinion:
GET REAL, AUSTRALIA. The REAL issue here is drug smuggling, an universally condemned crime that pollutes our global society down to its roots, NOT how a young man's life is about to be terminated by a momentous act of folly. Nguyen screwed up big time, period. If he went undetected, 400 grams of heroin will endanger 26,000 doses/ lives, Who then will answer to the families, relatives and friends of these 26,000 ++++ pple who suffer?
Heroin is a hardcore drug. The message should be narcotic containment and prevention, not capital punishment. Yes, i admit Singapore is strict, but principles have to stand firm. There's too many pansies out there sitting in goverments across the world who do not send out strong messages enough to drug traffickers. Let Singapore take the brunt of that but show the world a message to future generations why drug trafficking is so serious one developed nation's government believes that punishment by death is justifiable.
posted by BjornLee at 2:26 PM
2 Comments:
Socially, exaggeration is often whimsical. But when a government dramatically inflates numbers to help justify a death sentence, the integrity of both the trial and its governing body becomes questionable. In this case, the government is Singapore, the trial was for Van Tuong Nguyen, and the bloated number is 26,000.
Press from around the world quotes Abdullah Tarmugi, the Speaker of Singapore Parliament, in writing about the potential consequences of Van's actions, "almost 400 grams of pure heroin, enough for more than 26,000 doses."
But how was 26,000 doses (or "hits") derived?
It turns out that what constitutes a hit of heroin is not an easy thing to count. There are dozens of factors to consider; contact your local Needle Exchange for a comprehensive list. However, after collecting statistics from over a dozen sources (including police reports, narcotics web sites, health information, and workers from needle exchanges), the number of hits from a gram of pure heroin averages out to little more than 14.
Van Tuong Nguyen trafficked 396.2 grams of heroin into Singapore. This is approximately 5,600 doses.
The numbers 5,600 and 26,000 are obviously incongruous, as are reports that 400 grams of heroin would "ruin 26,000 lives". In fact, 400 grams of heroin would not come close to ruining even 5,600 lives. Rather, the heroin would most likely supply people already abusing it. With a little more research, we can estimate how many lives would be adversely affected by 400 grams of heroin during one year:
As many as 67, and as few as 6.
Van Tuong Nguyen would not have sent 26,000 people to their deaths from 400 grams of heroin. Nor would the lives of 26,000 people have been ruined. Far more likely is that six people would get a year's worth of hits. And for this he was executed?
Call it dreadful, call it dense, call it incomprehensible ... but do not call it justice.
Followed your link from your comment on Ypulse. Couldn't agree more with this post.
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