Singapore makes it extremely clear this is the punishment for smuggling any drugs.
This is what the paper disimberkment form used to look like before they switched to an electronic version.
That’s really fucked up.
Two pounds of weed btw. A man’s life because he wanted to get high with friends at a party or something. It’s illegal to import so it’s not unlikely that he wanted to get a bunch and use it over the course of a year. Fucking insane. Also fuck this articles’s loaded language and framing.
Then why wouldn’t he import 499g to not risk his life
Also very likely he was going to sell it.
I’m for legalising weed, but trying to import it to a country that is notorious for executing people for even small amounts is fucking moronic.
144 people for about a week, per the article.
That’s like 1500 dollars of weed. Hardly worth attempting to smuggle it unless it’s for personal use for a good long while.
I feel like if you’re going to have Draconian laws such as this, you should have to be able to prove that the criminal knew the consequences of their actions before doing so. If not, they should be given a non-death sentence with an explicit warning on the record that next time it will be a death sentence.
My mom is from Singapore and I’ve visited many times.
I don’t agree with their drug laws (or capital punishment in general), but there are dozens of warnings throughout the airport and on the passport control paperwork (in bold red letters) that you have to ignore to get to this point. They make it as clear as possible that importing drugs is a capital offense.
Considering that the Singaporean border is covered with signs warning about this, as well as at customs, safe to say he knew
Imagine killing a human being for possession of a harmless plant. It’s wildly unjust.
Harmless… Until you kill some pedestrian because you DUI.
You could argue that it is a lack of education about the effect of such substance, but on the other hand, I’ve met enough potheads to know that they know about it, and just have such hubris that they believe those averse effect only affect others. They are “perfectly awake, maaaan” 😅.
Still, death penalty is far too much for such “crime”.
Edit : I don’t think using drugs should be a crime, especially one that can warrant the death penalty, but it is unfortunately there. Thus why I use the word “crime”.
In the case of that man, it is obvious it wasn’t for personal consumption (unless he wanted to fly to the moon and back), so it would be hard to argue he’d be innocent. Death penalty can seem over the top for occidentals, but drugs are considered way harsher in Asia than in Western countries, partly due to the opium wars.
have such hubris that they believe those averse effect only affect others
TBF there is a lot of variability in how cannabis affects different people. I’ve got a friend who had to quit because it made him extremely paranoid, to the point that he’d hallucinate. That isn’t universal by a long shot. I haven’t experienced paranoia or hallucinations, the biggest side effect I’ve experienced is sleepiness. Meanwhile my friend found it harder to sleep while high because his brain kept playing tricks on him. Very different brains, very different results.
Though I don’t doubt that plenty of people misjudge their abilities while high, just as they misjudge their abilities when drunk. But it’s important to note that it isn’t necessarily hubris that makes a person say, “Weed doesn’t do that to me.” Some of us genuinely experience different effects. You can’t truly know what’s going on in someone’s head unless you’re the one living in it.
Weed shouldn’t be a crime. Driving under influence, or tired, or stressed out, should be, but it have nothing to do with cannabis per se.
I agree with you on that. Weed shouldn’t be illegal, no more that alcohol.
But saying that it has nothing to do with cannabis is a bit like saying alcohol as nothing to do either. The averse effects on attention is a direct consequence of those substances consumptions.
It the choice of the user to consume it or not, but as it also impair said persons sens of danger, the choice to go driving despite said substances consumption can partly be attributed to the substance itself.
lmao as if drivers needed cannabis to be dangerous. Cars should be outlawed, not weed.
Cars should be outlawed
Driving and car ownership in Singapore is cartoonishly expensive and heavily regulated.
It probably will be outlawed in a decade or so.
Cars should be outlawed, not weed.
Sober drivers kill more people every year than weed alone. If we had to choose between staying home and using weed to get high, or driving literally anywhere, the safest option is to stay home and get stoned.
As a cyclist, I’d agree, but there are many place where public transportation and bikes can’t go, especially in the countryside. So cars make sense. Cannabis too, as it has a lot of medical uses. But cannabis in car are where it becomes a problem.
there are many place where public transportation and bikes can’t go, especially in the countryside
Are we still talking about Singapore?
If you think im dangerous when I’m driving high you should see me sober :3
(just kidding, I don’t drive)
Thank god you don’t 😂
(Just kidding, you do anything you want as soon as you don’t DUI. I’ve seen enough death from that, don’t want anyone else to loose a loved one to one of those assholes)
And yet…Singapore has a very low crime rate, is stable, safe and is incredibly wealthy.
Stability and wealth seem poor metrics to use as a argument for this, as they can be affected by so many other aspects of governance. Also I’m not convinced of the effect of capital punishment on crime rate, especially when it comes to illicit substances, as it can cause people to be just be extra cautious.
Although if anyone has any data to the contrary I would love to see it.
Singapore is such a fucked up place, yet righties love to act like it’s some utopia.
And yet, it’s very socialist.
Singapore’s main party (PAP) doesn’t fit cleanly in the western right-left paradigm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Action_Party
Center-right, Democratic socialist, anti-communist, “Communitarianism”
and it promotes harmony between different cultures in a way I’ve never seen - you can’t talk shit about anyone based on religion, for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Singapore
“The Sedition Act also prohibits seditious acts and speech which “promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore,” and the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA) empowers the Minister for Home Affairs to take a pre-emptive approach by issuing restraining orders against a religious leader that has committed or is attempting to commit certain acts threatening religious harmony.”
it’s a microcosm of different cultures crushed together with little room for debate, should things go partisan conflict tragedies would rapidly ensue; but the restrictions on freedom of speech seem fraught with potential pitfalls…
I look at Singapore like Taiwan - they seem to genuinely try to do the best for a broader range than most, and each face unique ethnic and geographic complexities that they’ve overcome through enginuity and clever, hard working populaces.
But yeah, murdering people for pot… fuck man…
Maybe it’s modeled after Star Trek: Next Generation episode “Justice”
An otherwise nice planet/society with some really extreme punishments.
Disneyland with the death penalty.
So Disneyland.
William Gibson wrote that Wired article years ago in his brief visit to Singapore.
thats just regular disneyland isnt it?
Don’t fuck with the mouse.
I’m not in any way, shape or form defending the policy of Singapore, but… given that they do have a death penalty for this, why the hell did he carry 1 kg into the country? I’ve been to Singapore and I was afraid to even let go of my bags for a second, for fear that someone would plant something on me.
Why would you give your money to a country that execute people for a plant
Was sent there by my employer, so not my money
People must sign a paper on the plane acknowledging that import drugs carries the death penalty, even before landing.
The result shouldn’t be surprising for anyone.
The amount of white-knights with colonial mindsets in this comment section is insane. Singapore is an Asian country, you’ll need an objective moral foundation in order to condemn them for this
I have an objective moral foundation and I condemn them for this
Good.
Objective moral foundation: capital punishment is bad.
There’s no such thing as objective morality. At some fundamental level you’re just deciding who benefits from your moral compass and who doesn’t.
Horrifying but not surprising given heavy-handed conservatism the island is known for, as conviction rates are much high, the government will keep order at the pleasure of their prime minister.
FYI, The Straits Times is basically a step down from a state mouthpiece. If you don’t believe me, just read the article:
The cannabis seized from Omar is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 144 abusers for a week.
Here’s a Human Rights Watch article from five days ago not flagrantly trying to justify the state-sanctioned murder of a man convicted of an entirely harmless crime. Fuck TST for this journalistic swill.
Yeah, I saw that and was like, holy fuck, that’s fucked up. What a fucked up country.
I’ll bet AI did that calculation. Either that or a really stoned person.
