Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore's government has rejected a plea from Australian officials to spare the life of an Australian facing the death penalty for drug smuggling.A friend asked me today if I supported the death penalty for drug trafficking. After a moment's thought I said yes, based on socio-economic considerations.
My assumption is that drugs impose a cost on society because they destroy the lives of those who become an addicted, increasing the crime rate, causing a burden to relatives and lowering the GDP. It follows logically then that all possible measures should be taken to keep drugs out of the country, and impose the maximum deterrant on drug traffickers.
The legal system seems to have come up with four main mechanisms for deterring criminal activities:
1) Fines - but this is not likely to work on people desperate enough for cash to be drug runners
2) Caning - this seems like a weak deterrent given the payoff to trafficking
3) Life imprisonment - but this merely creates a new financial burden on taxpayers to support the criminal for the rest of his life (to the order of a few thousand per year, I believe)
4) Death - short and sweet, assuming the guilt is fully established
Thus, in order to minimise the cost to society, it seems any rational economist would pick the 4th option.
Alternatively, Singapore could also legalise drugs and impose a heavy tax on it. The proceeds could go towards funding rehabilitation programs to minimise the negative social impact. This would also boost tourism (since we would become the Amsterdam of the East where everyone can come to snort) and create more employment. You got casino? So what ... we also got, and here can do drugs some more ...
6 comments:
I blogged once about how the drug laws are more damaging than the actual drugs itself. But the laws are necessary to deter drug abusers from creating the damage in the first place.
Anyway, I am undecided if death penalty is right or even godly.
Paddy: I need clarification on this, isn't the legalisation/rehabilation option exercised in Australia and its effects not found to be desirable?
Rust: Below are my immature opinions that have not gone through thorough thinking. Please feel free to pick at the holes. :)
I think that the legal system is to regulate national morality and a way to educate people on what's right and what's wrong through the consequences the law will bring.
From a human (not God's) perspective, there are some wrongdoings that are simply intolerable and the cost of doing them (esp for the benefit of oneself at great cost to our neighbours) must simply be something that they must risk giving up everything for.
I think it's obvious that you can tell I think the death penalty, imposed nationally (not individually), morally and consistently is right.
When it is applied as a way the nation protects the society's (each citizen's collective neighbours') good, then I'd think it can be godly, wouldn't it?
Wondering where your entry about how drug laws are more damaging than drugs can be found?
CD: I was just trying to draw a facetious comparison with the casino. And no, I don't think the social rehabilitation for gambling will work either.
I also think you are making a very general statement about what is right and regulating national morality.
This is why I choose to take an economics approach because it is much easier to reason.
Rust: If you want the biblical response, I'd say shoot them up and hang them out to cold turkey. A few times. As written in Exodus 21:24.
the entry about drugs itself is not long. it can be found here: http://silverust.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_silverust_archive.html
To put it simply, Singapore's drug laws in general can create a very bad situation for drug offenders, while the same offence is really a non-issue or less severe in many other countries. Hence, the law itself is potentially more damaging than the actual effects of drugs.
Actually, despite what people may feel about our resilience to mass media and ability to shape our own thoughts, our opinion of the death penalty is shaped very much by the environment we've brought up in.
Living in Singapore most of my life, I have no qualms with capital punishment but friends who have lived in a world where that is non-existent find it unjustifiable regardless of the offence...and this includes someone who, in his words, thinks that "mass nuking of offending nations is the only solution to curb terrorism"
check this out.
crime and punishment
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