The media here in Australia here lately has been dominated by some our more foolish country people doing silly things with drugs in South East Aisa. You would think that they would have got the hint from other high profile cases that haven’t gone well for the defendants but instead every couple of months there seems to be another case raising its ugly head as another foolish Australian thinks they know better and tries smuggling drugs through South East Asia.
Dominating the news at present is Nguyen Tuong Van, a 25 year old Australian who has been sentanced to hang in Singapore next week. He was stopped in Singapore on route to Australia trying to smuggle 400 grams of heroin. The anti death penalty campaigners have come out behind him and our nations leaders have publicly made every apparent effort to have the death penalty over turned. What annoys me though is that no one seems to be talking about the effects of what would have happened had he succeeded and the lives that the heroin would have touched. According to the media reports the quantity of drugs was enough for 26,000 doses after it had been cut and mixed with other stuff. I don’t know the statistics but I wonder how many of those doses would be overdoses that cause death and the countless other effects of narcotics.
Its my personal view that the death penalty is wrong. It doesn’t work as a deterant, even with due process no legal system ever gets it 100% right and its better that 100 guilty people walk free than 1 innocent person is executed. I also believe that the state (meaning a nation) should never take its citizens lives from a moral perspective.
Strangely though despite my person opinions I just can’t find myself feeling any pity or outrage for what is to happen to Nguyen Tuong Van. He knowingly strapped on this quantity of drugs and he was aware of the consequences of his actions. He also knew what would happen with the drugs if he was successful and I expect cared not at all as to what effects would come from the drugs “hitting the streets” so to speak, instead preferring to exploit the needs of desperate people addicted to drugs. He didn’t care if it was cut with too much drain cleaner causing accidental deaths in users, he didn’t care that to pay for their drugs they would in some cases commit what ever crime they can to get their next hit and there is the countless “ripple effects” as the consequences spread from their centre.
So here i find myself, against the death penalty but feeling nothing about this young man to be executed. I can’t sum up any real feelings about the whole affair other than a vague sense of unease because i should be feeling something. Strange really
3 Comments Received
November 27th, 2005 @1:18 am
I think its an absolute travesty that a man has to be hung for drug smuggling (or anything else). Not least because there is so much lack of education and knowledge surrounding drugs because the governments want to convince themselves they are in control of the situation with their zero tolerance programmes. It smacks of ignorance and I feel that if the government started doing more research into these drugs, not just the medical side but the sociological aspect of the culture too, and started educating the population early on to the *real* dangers of the drugs the danger and excitement would be taken out of the culture and with that the glamour, then there wouldnt be such a demand for drugs and the whole problem would be much more controllable. Maybe then there wouldnt be a need to hang people in the “civilized” world!!
November 27th, 2005 @5:03 am
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 must hang?
Call it dreadful, call it dense, call it incomprehensible … but do not call it justice.
November 28th, 2005 @9:22 am
I have to agree with you completely Greg, if you’re stupid enough to do something like that then I truly believe you should face the consequences, it’s not like it’s unpublicised that drug smuggling carries this kind of punishment, if you chose to take that risk then you must accept that it may not go as smoothy as planned.
Interestingly Dan wrote about exactly this here just a few days ago, also agreeing with you
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