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I'm in agreement with the Grunt too.
I don't condone what Nguyen did, lets face it he was a scumbag that was prepared to profit from other peoples misery without a thought to their suffering.
Having said that though, I don't think the punishment fits the crime.
After all, not only is the poor bastard going to be necked, but he's had three years to contempate his fate.
I certainly won't take any satisfaction from his execution.
I won't be voting.
Well spoken Grunt.
A Billion a year? Jeez, that's optomistic! I reckon the true cost would beQuote:
Originally Posted by Grunt
double that for law enforcement/courts to say nothing of the burden on health care (at least one extra ambulance per city per shift, etc etc).
How much is the total loss from burglary and theft every year, to say nothing of the people who get killed or injured in robberies/bag snatches?
I think that there must be thousands of people employed in this country "fighting" the drug problem with no effect other than creating another industry. Add my vote for treating it like a health problem with affordable prescriptions and draconian penalties for dealing.
We all know where this tread is heading. Whatever it is please stop telling others how to run their country.
To whom is this directed?Quote:
Originally Posted by Wongo
Greg
No one. Sorry it should be "Whatever it is please dont try to tell others how to run their country"Quote:
Originally Posted by gregoryq
This thread is aimed at Australia.Quote:
We all know where this tread is heading. Whatever it is please stop telling others how to run their country.
Then Craig's post is even more relevant!Quote:
Originally Posted by Grunt
P
:p
I have no moral problems with the death penalty. Where there is NO doubt and the crime warrants it e.g. Bryant, Knight, Debs etc. String 'em all up and I couldn't care less.
But, in the Singapore case, the penalty doesn't match the crime. He should get 30 years for being a smuggler but death, no, not in this case. Having said that though, the penalty was in place before the guy went on his drug smuggling trip and he knew the consequences. I don't care about his reasons. Every damn smuggler ever caught says it was somebody else's or they only did it once etc.
Knowing you are going to die in a horrible way in less than 2 weeks must be a nightmare. For him and his mother particularly. Surely there's a better way to end a life if that is what they think must be done.
If those people that believe in the law enforcement/criminal approach to drugs would like to cast their minds back to the US prohibition on alcohol they would see that it was wildly successful at making money for moonshiners and bootleggers as well as giving the Mafia a really good kick start.
Q. Why is it that governments allow some recreational drugs and not others?
A. Votes
Votes from alcohol and tobacco users and those that profit from them, and the fear of losing votes from "moral majority" type people if they "relax" their stance on illicit drugs.
As long as demand exists then there will be people willing to risk death penalties to fill that demand (and make a lot of money). If the demand is removed by regulated, legal supply then the trade will stop. While there's probably still a bit of moonshining going on in the US, it's probably minimal and mainly to circumvent taxes and there's probaly no illegal importation happening at all.
Mick
Good one Grunt. :) :) Good to hear some sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grunt
From another point of view he could just have been taking it into the country to alleviate addict's suffering. (Not mine, but another's)Quote:
Originally Posted by craigb
I remember watching footage of the Chinese executing their addicts. A bullet to the back of the head and into a pit. Same for the dealers.
I cant see why you should treat the addict and dealer too differently. One is supply the other is demand. My basic understanding of economics was that one did not function without the other.
On that note, I dont recall anyone forcing me to stick a needle in my arm. Nor the cigarettes which I took up at university and spent the next ten years trying to quit. I knew that cigarettes were addictive so I was the only one responsible for that. Same goes for any addict.
So we should kill you for your stupidity?Quote:
I knew that cigarettes were addictive so I was the only one responsible for that.
I dont agree with the dealth penalty. I've made that clear before.
My point was why should we adopt the softly softly approach with the addicts and the hard line with the dealers. Both know or knew what they were doing.
I think we also need to look at the facts about the World Wide problem of drugs. The worst problem in the drug scene is Heroin. To make the amount of Heroin the world uses today you need to grow alot of popies - Fields of them, HUGE FIELDS. These fields are easily seen by a helicopter, so how do they get away with it??
Fact 1
80% (or something like that) of the worlds heroin is made from popies grown in Afghanistan.
Fact 2
Bin Ladin had his finger in the pie. The Taliban had control over pretty much all of the popy fields.
THE MOST AMAZING FACT OF ALL
Ever since the USA & Australian forces fixed the country and returned the power to the government instead of the Taliban the amount of heroin now exported from the region has actually increased - like an 80% increase as well. Thats a huge difference and begs the question why?
Blame the dealers, blame the middle men, blame who you want but the fact is its allowed to grow in large amounts in certain countries that seem to have a large hold on the whole market. Without these large plantations the heroin trade would come to a grinding halt because there simply would not be enough fields to grow popies for the worlds huge demands.
The problem needs to be fixed by sourcing an alternative income for the poor farmers who are working for the corrupt governments.
And its no good blaming the third world goverments because from these facts it looks like ours are just as bad - actually worse.
All I know is Its obviously alot more complicated that what any of us would know. Anyone studied world economics?