Have we forgotten who the bad guy is?

• 14 ounces of heroin has a U.S. street value of more than 2 million dollars. That’s assuming the average junkie uses a 1.5 mg dose at the rate of $10 per dose.
• In the United States, there are more than 84,000 visits to emergency rooms each year due to heroin overdoses.
• According to Drug Abuse Warning Network, or DAWN, heroin and morphine accounted for 51% of drug deaths ruled accidental or unexpected in 1999.
• According to statistics in 1999 heroin overdose has caused more deaths than traffic accidents.

Heroin is a horrifying, deadly drug and a huge problem in the United States and around the globe. Heroin dealers make billions of dollars that represent hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. So why is it that people are finding Singapore’s strict policy on the death penalty for drug dealers so hard to handle?

Yesterday, Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian who was caught red-handed with 14 oz of heroin in his possession at Singapore’s airport, was hanged before dawn. For three years the Australian government and numerous bleeding hearts around the world have worked to have the mandatory death sentence handed down by Singapore’s government commuted. The Associated Press reports,

Vigils were held in cities around Australia, with bells and gongs sounding 25 times at the hour of Nguyen's execution.

Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, said Nguyen's execution would damage relations between the two countries.

Are you kidding me???

"I have told the prime minister of Singapore that I believe it will have an effect on the relationship on a people-to-people, population-to-population basis," Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW shortly before Singapore confirmed it carried out the execution.

Ok, so let me get this straight… The government of Singapore intercepted approximately 2.6 million Australian dollars worth of heroin headed for the “clean” streets of Australia and John Howard is playing, “you’re not our friend anymore!” as a thank you gift? And what was that? A threat? I wonder if John Howard would agree to NOT uphold his own country’s laws if the tables were turned.

I think it’s worth noting that Australia supposedly has a zero tolerance policy on drug trafficking. They pride themselves in being a “clean” continent and claim that any substances available are brought in by foreigners. What’s interesting is that I’ve been through customs at the Sydney airport (Van was headed to Melbourn). I couldn’t even bring popcorn into the country because it was “uncooked agricultural products”. Between the multiple stages you have to go through, each including dogs, wands and x-ray machines – it’s highly unlikely Van would have made it into the country with the smack, unless he had help inside the airport.

What’s more interesting to me, though, is that so many people have come to this scumbag’s defense. Nguyen Tuong Van was nothing more than a garbage smuggling drug dealer who got caught with his pants down. Most people would agree that drug dealers carry a large part of the responsibility for drug related deaths. Why then, when the statistics are CLEAR on heroin related fatalities, is anyone….anyone at ALL, defending this guy? Vigils? Church bells? Are you kidding me?

Another useless but interesting fact taken from the Australian government’s own online “Heroin Fact Sheet” is this…

Heroin overdose is now one of the leading causes of death in Australia in the 18-34 year age group. Non-fatal overdoses are also common amongst heroin users.

For those of you whose typing fingers are itching to play the “Christian” card, open your Bible to Exodus 21 –

“ …if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

So, let’s not go there.

This whole thing takes me back to1994 and the case of Michael Fay. You remember him. He was the spoiled rotten American kid who spray painted 18 cars in Singapore & had a bedroom full of stolen property and was only sentenced to 4 months in jail, a $2,200 fine and six cracks on the butt with a wet cane. Then President, Bill Clinton, pleaded with the Singapore government to spare the brat of the beating and they agreed to reduce the caning to 4 strokes of the cane. The whole world became outraged by the “brutal and excessive” punishment being handed down.

At the end of the day, there’s really only one statistic that is worth repeating. Singapore’s crime rate, per capita, is only 25% that of Australia’s. With stats like that – they don’t have to explain themselves to anyone.

Bottom line….
you don’t pull on Superman’s cape...
you don’t spit into the wind...
you don’t pull the mask off the Lone Ranger
and apparently you don’t mess around with Singapore.

I applaud them for not being bullied.

Resources:
ABC News
Singapore Statistics
Australian Drug Facts
U.S. Drug Facts