Friday, January 20, 2006

'The heroin guilt trip'

THE tragic case of Nguyen Tuong Van has generated much debate about the appropriateness of capital punishment for heroin traffickers. His execution in Singapore late last year was felt by many to be appropriate because, as one columnist put it: "Heroin makes people do bad things to themselves and to others. We must ensure people don't use it."

But is it really the restriction of supply, through prohibition, that prevents the disintegration of society as we know it?
Read the whole article here.
Props to Mark.

5 comments:

Steppie said...

Arcade Fire rocks my socks. How that new Moby album?

Word Verification: rqdijqi
Sounds like a small Norwegian animal. Lives in deep snow caves and eats small berries and leaves.

Christop said...

I actually haven't listened to the Moby album more than twice, so it hasn't grown on me heaps yet.

Taqwa said...

That actually reminds me of an episode of Star Trek, the next Generation:

In a nutshell, they visit this paradise planet, and after a while, they notice that there's only 1 punishment for every crime: Death. Plus, patrols are kept secret and totally random, so instead of risking getting caught, nobody ever commits a crime.

Of course, starfleet are appalled at this, but if you think about it, it's actually a brutally effective system dont you think?

John M said...

i think the problem with heroine is more how leathal it is when you overdose. there are heaps of people in trouble because of other drugs too, but it is the ones that many people die of because of overdose that is the problem. so keeping the drug out of the country keeps it from being available to alot of people who otherwise might get on it and end up dying because of it.

Christop said...

The thing is, heroin is so addictive because of the stuff that it's cut with. The reason most heroin in Australia's not pure is that it costs so much. To be able to afford more heroin, people use half of a hit, mix it with something else (like talcum powder) and resell it to buy their next hit.
In Afghanistan, where most of the world's heroin comes from, heroin's very cheap and a lot of people use it, but there are hardly any addicts or overdoses.
Pure heroin's actually less addictive than morphine and has less negative effects.