Death penalty for Australian Man carrying 16 ounces of heroin in Singapore

[Bertuzzied]

Never tried heroin before but is 16 ounces a lot? What would the penalty be if he were caught in Canada? We need harsher penalties here!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051201/...ore_australian

[calculoso]

Wouldn't even get a slap on the wrist here...

[Regulator75]

Yeah that's a lot... That's 1 pound of Heroin, that's a whole lot of trouble.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Now do you actually know that Calculoso, or are you just being the typical jaded, "This is what's wrong with this country" type?

Cause I'm pretty sure having a pound of Heroin will get you into a quite a bit of trouble.

Found it Cal.
Turns out you'd get a lot more than a slap on the wrist. Looks like it's life in prison for posession with intent to traffic (which I would guess 1lb is enought for it to be intent to traffic).
Sorry dude, death it ain't but a slap on the wrist it ain't either.

http://www.criminal-lawyer.on.ca/penalties-drugs.html

[Bertuzzied]

Wow this is even more bizarre. I know chewing gum is illegal in Singapore but i didn't know they considered it even. That box of Juicy Fruit could be deadly!

Singapore has refused Nguyen Tuong Van’s request for chewing gum as his last meal, saying that to grant the condemned man’s wish could harm Singapore’s international reputation as a brutal but litter-free nation. “We’re more likely to give him clemency than the chance to litter,” said the superintendent of Changi prison Gong Chok Lee. “Besides, chewing gum is most uncivilised, even on death row.”
The superintendent says Nguyen’s request put authorities in a difficult position. “If we gave him the gum and he littered, we’d have to hang him twice” Gong explained. “And when someone is about to be executed, capital punishment is even an even less effective deterrent than it normally is

[FlamesAllTheWay]

Another topic relevant to the conversation, incase people missed it on it's first go round:

http://www.calgarypuck.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18199

And here's my two cents from that thread pertaining to this issue:

The guy knew what he was getting himself into and what the consequences would be if he got caught. Harsh penalty for sure, and I don't agree with it at all, but they make it pretty clear that that's the way it works over there (or so [Captain Crunch has] said).

...What if someone got caught smuggling heroin into Singapore because it was planted in their suitcase or whatnot? They'd probably meet a similar fate as this Australian, and this is one of the big reason's why I don't support the death penalty...

[Daradon]

Death penalty is defintely harsh, but one should always know the laws and consequeces of the country one is visiting. And it's not like herion is a 'soft' drug.

And this is the third time in the past year an Aussie has gotten into trouble in a foriegn nation carrying drugs. One woman got caught with an massive amount of pot (in the Philipeans, so much so she was obviously selling though she claimed it was planted on her by backage handlers.) Another girl, a model or actress I believe got busted with two pills of E (now that one was dumb, you're obviously not selling two pills) and faced 10 or more years I think.

I don't know what happened to them. The first was sentanced though there was going to be an appeal.

The gum thing though is obviously stupid.

[calculoso]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Now do you actually know that Calculoso, or are you just being the typical jaded, "This is what's wrong with this country" type?

So much for trying to make a joke...

There, fingers and hands and lives are lost for crimes..

Here, not even a slap on the wrist.

[Igottago]

waaaaaaay too extreme...I mean, yeah, he should be punished, but what kind of society is that willing to hand out death sentences so readily..i tend to think that equates to murder, and their crime is worse than the crime of the individual they are punishing...glad I live in Canada

[KootenayFlamesFan]

And so it was carried it, as expected, earlier today.

I'm on the fence in regards to the death penalty, but it doesn't sound like I'm alone. Even Australians are torn on the subject.

"A survey by Morgan Poll conducted on Wednesday night showed 47 percent of Australians believed Nguyen should be executed, 46 percent said the death penalty should not be carried out, and seven percent were undecided."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapc...eut/index.html

[Delthefunky]

Singapore automatically uses the death penalty on anyone caught with 15 grams or more of any Narcotic... Way too extreme.

I mean in Vancouver they give users a place to shoot up for crying out loud. Not saying that Drug Trafficing is ok in any way, but in my eyes this is pretty extreme...

[icarus]

How many supporters of the death penalty here also support torture? Just curious.

[moon]

Originally Posted by icarus

How many supporters of the death penalty here also support torture? Just curious.

Depends on who is administrating and recieving the torture and the purpose of it. I am not in favor of random torture by psycho's who do it for fun, but am not necessarily opposed to the military using it to gain information from terrorists and enemy combatants in order to gain information.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by moon

Depends on who is administrating and recieving the torture and the purpose of it. I am not in favor of random torture by psycho's who do it for fun, but am not necessarily opposed to the military using it to gain information from terrorists and enemy combatants in order to gain information.

Bah.

[Patek23]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Bah.

hey I thought you had a good point, do the enemies of whichever country your fighting feel that they are evil or wrong? War is a two-way street what you do to others will also be done to you.....

[sketchyt]

I lived in Singapore for a number of years and it's actually quite a nice place to live. Boring-as-hell, but nice.

I'm not supporting the death penalty, but their crime rates are ridiculously low and it's not like people are living under the fearing watch of the gum-gestapo (I believe it's ok to be chewing gum, just not to sell it or litter with it).

This is an extreme example, but I think if countries really wanted to curb illegal drug use/trafficing, a no-tolerance-sans-death-penalty method of dealing with it works.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Flaming Homer

hey I thought you had a good point, do the enemies of whichever country your fighting feel that they are evil or wrong? War is a two-way street what you do to others will also be done to you.....

I just didn't want to bother with an argument about vocabulary with him or anyone else (but here I go...)

A soldier = a soldier.

A terrorist or enemy combatant = anyone I label a terrorist or enemy combatant.

Giving the/our military to torture a terrorist or enemy combatant is basically giving carte blanche to torture anyone they want.

And like you (Homer) said, what goes around comes around. So I guess I'll restate my original point and see what moon has to say about it.

Are you okay with the military of another country torturing a Canadian soldier?

Or even a civilian for that matter, as long as they have put the correct label on the person?

[moon]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Are you okay with the military of another country torturing a Canadian soldier?

Or even a civilian for that matter, as long as they have put the correct label on the person?

I obviously would not like it and would hope that it was avoided but I do realise that it does go on anyways and if it is done in the context of war or terrorism then I guess I am okay with others doing it but would rather only us and our allies do it.

[Patek23]

so lets ignore the whole good vs. evil aspect of things, as both sides of this war are going to claim for themselves to be in the good.

So basically your saying that you would rather one side torture the other, and not allow the other side to torture our side? Sounds pretty hypocritical to me.

[moon]

Of course it is hypocritical.

I would rather the people on my side to not be tortured and don't have that same feeling for someone who wanted to kill me or my allies.