I'm totally with you there buddy.Time to send in the SAS.
Yeah I agree that no one should be put to death for possessing drugs. In my country (also in south-east Asia), the punishment towards drug users are more lenient, but heavier to the dealers. In my country, drug abuse isn't viewed as just a personal issue, but it also drag one's family into it. I had a friend whose father was a heroine addict. Before consuming the drugs, the father was quite a middle class businessman and could give his family housing and schooling for his children. The father had started consuming drugs 4-5 years ago and it started to influence their life greatly only within 2 years or so. The family was split apart, the mother asked for a divorce, their economy collapsed, and my friend (though she managed to go through college) went through quite a traumatic ordeal. So, you see, drugs abuse can be viewed as having an adverse effect not only to the abuser, but also to the people around him (our culture is a lot of a collective one), hence I can understand the reasoning behind the severe punishment. At least in my country.no-one should ever be killed for just "possession of drugs."
i don't see why countries have such harsh laws when drugs are involved.
most of the time, the only time people using drugs are a threat, is when they're driving a vehicle or something.
but if they're at home doing drugs, they're only hurting themselves. and i see no reason for that to be a punishable offense.
laws should be about real crimes like murder, rape, theft, abduction, etc...
i.e. crimes where one party purposely harms another party.
drugs is usually about one individual harming themself; and putting laws on that is basically saying "the government owns you, and what you can do to yourself."
Good points, though I meant also in comparison to other industrialized nations comprising the G8 & G10, america has a much larger prison population per capita and it largely has to do with their drug policies.pcxl:
yeah that's true, america is too hard on drug users; and it's jails are getting full of druggies instead of real criminals.
but you also have to think like, in some countries if you do a crime they'll cut off your arm or something so you don't do it again.
whereas America would never do that, and would put you in jail instead.
so different punishments like that might also attribute to why america has alot of people in jail VS other countries.
furthermore, a better police force than most countries, is probably a big reason america has alot of people in jail.