1. "OK, you have kids, so have I. What it if your kids weren't perfect paragons of virtue, but were just like mine and everyone else's kids, and screwed up. Same rules apply?"
The Singapore governement is not hanging a drug user. They are hanging a drug supplier!
2. "The death penalty is barbaric, and is no deterrent anyway."
I agree the death penalty is barbaric but where was everyone when the Singaporians were hanging there own. I don't remember any outraged crys except when it happens to be an Australian that will be put to death.
As for the death penalty not being a deterrent. All other things being equal, in order, which of the following would you thing an illicit drug importer would chose, a path where the penalty is a few years jail, a path where the penalty is life in jail, and a path where penalty is death.
3. "And I repeat, nicotine is a known carcinogenic. There is no safe level of usage, and it is highly addictive. So how about hanging cigarette company executives - particularly those that have kept this secret for years. And the government is quite happy to collect the taxes."
I agree, let's ultimately ban cigarettes but equating cigarettes to hard drugs is stretching things (a lot!!!). How do you know that there is no safe level of usage of cigarettes? That is what the anti-smoking lobby is saying but the reality may be considerably different. Smoking one cigarette almost certainly will not kill you. (You probably have as much chance of winning the lottery.) Taking one hit of a hard drug very well may. (Still a lottery but with very much fewer tickets). People do commit robbery and major crimes to buy a cigarette, many do for a hit of a hard drug.
The amount of the drug this guy was carrying almost certainly will have caused numerous drug overdose deaths. He is worse than most murderers to me. So I have no problem with his life being extinguished.
