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.
144 abusers for a week
By my calculations, that’s about 18 ounces (144/8, assuming an eighth per person per week).
That’s not that much, as far as international smuggling goes.
Still, it’s a bullshit reason to execute someone over.
If you wanna smoke weed, Singapore isn’t the place for you…
Yeah, I saw that and was like, holy fuck, that’s fucked up. What a fucked up country.
You think it is harmless, Singapore does not.
You think I think I care what Singapore thinks.
I think Tharman Shanmugaratnam should be tied, blindfolded, and walked over a plank covered in faced-up used heroin needles into the Port of Singapore.
I don’t assume either way. Are you American?
I’ll bet AI did that calculation. Either that or a really stoned person.
Yeah, thats about 6g per “addict”, this will not be enough for 2 days if they are heavy smokers…
In other words, a kg is like nothing. And getting killed for it is the real crime.
Singapore is such a fucked up place, yet righties love to act like it’s some utopia.
And yet, it’s very socialist.
Maybe it’s modeled after Star Trek: Next Generation episode “Justice”
An otherwise nice planet/society with some really extreme punishments.
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…
Dunno shit about Singapore but even if this is true, the economic style of the country does not dictate its capital punishment statutes
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”
No organization in any place fits cleanly in the “western” right-left paradigm. Not even in the US that’s the place people call “western”.
They are not democratic socialist. They even
got kicked outresigned from Socialist International.The PAP was officially committed to democratic socialism from its inception in 1954 until its resignation from the Socialist International in 1976.
In 1976, the PAP formally resigned from the Socialist International (SI) after the Dutch Labour Party had initially proposed to expel the PAP for the Singapore government’s internment of political prisoners without trial, and accused it of human rights violations.[116][117]
I think they were referring to Chia Thye Poh and various other crackdowns of “commie scum” boogiemen. Its worth noting Singapore only became a country in the 60s.
As a result, and without ever facing indictment or criminal trial, he became one of the longest-serving political prisoners in the world. Restrictions on his civil rights remained in force for more than 32 years following his arrest, and the duration of his detention was often compared to that of Nelson Mandela, who spent over 27 years in prison following his conviction for treason, sabotage and other political crimes.[1]
(NCMPs kinda sorta address the issue of a single party system. Feels more like a bandaid at best and controlled opposition at worst)
Disneyland with the death penalty.
thats just regular disneyland isnt it?
Don’t fuck with the mouse.
I guess that explains why he and Minnie never had kids.
So Disneyland.
William Gibson wrote that Wired article years ago in his brief visit to Singapore.
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.
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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.
is a bit like saying alcohol as nothing to do either
Yep. Alcohol is legal. Driving while impaired by it is not.
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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.
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.
It’s also now all tracked. Every vehicles are now required to install a tracker that is used for charging for toll roads and automatically fine you for speeding at any time.
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.
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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)
there are many place where public transportation and bikes can’t go, especially in the countryside
Are we still talking about Singapore?
In that case no. If I remember it well, Singapore is quite small, I suppose bike should be enough for most uses except if you have to move big things, or a lot of groceries, in which case cars makes sense.
In my case I have a cargo bike, and live near a mid-sized city, so I can just go do my groceries cycling. But someone who is further in the countryside wouldn’t be able to. Partly because of the distance, no one want to do a two hours trip (or more) to buy groceries, but also because having cars zooming past you at 70km/h and more is kinda stressful.
Case is, cars have uses, cannabis too, but both shouldn’t be used at the same time.
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.
True.
That’s just my own experience with my own potheads friends. Some of them who got into accidents because they thought they where better than other, and misjudged how much cannabis affected them.
Not everyone is like them, sure. But to this day I never met someone who act rational when under the influence of drugs. Maybe I didn’t met enough drugs user, who knows.
Everywhere that has legalized weed had this same bullshit scaremongering about how cars are going to be running over schoolchildren every 5 seconds because everyone would just be driving around high all the time.
That hasn’t happened at all, so why do you still make the bullshit claim?
Weed + cars doesn’t seem to be a big problem in a state where legal weed is everywhere unlike alcohol.
A great deal of alcohol is consumed out late at night in places one is likely to drive to and from. Almost all accidents happen to people who are plastered not least of which because drunk people get increasingly confident and simultaneously incapable of judging their ability.
Worse drunk people even quite drunk people can reasonably pilot a car which is why most DUIs are given only after hundreds miles of drunk drinking.
People’s false confidence is rewarded right up until they go to jail or kill someone.
Weed rarely produces the degree of impairment and when it does you aren’t going anywhere. Also since there are no legal venues to smoke it you are most commonly at home
In places where cannabis has been legalized, a common side-effect is a decline in traffic fatalities. Weed smokers are more likely to be couch-locked when they’ve had too much, rather than going out driving like drunks do.
ao why isn’t insomnia punishable by death or otherwise? That would potentially lead someone to crash a car too.
Driving while knowingly impaired is an offence in the UK.
again, the comment I was replying to said weed should be illegal just incase you dui and I was saying “why isn’t being tired in case you drive illegal then?”
Do you chose to take insomnia? I’d doubt that.
But to be clear : I am against death penalty. It robs any chance for someone to change for the better, and even the worst criminal can change and try to repair, even partially, the damages he did. In the current case the death penalty is way overblown. But not everyone would be of that opinion, unfortunately.
I can absolutely choose not to go to bed, yes.
Not going to bed and insomnia are two different things. Insomnia is a condition where you try to sleep, and can’t. Not going to bed, well, is a choice.
In both cases, you can be held responsible if you end up falling asleep on the wheel while sleep deprived, and cause an accident.
In both cases, you can be held responsible if you end up falling asleep on the wheel while sleep deprived, and cause an accident.
But that’s not what you said - you were saying that because people have the potential to cause an accident when smoking weed they should be executed.
If is was the case, I understand better the downvotes. That wasn’t my intention de frame it like that, I’m against death penalty.
What I intended to say is that people who takes substances that impair their judgement, and go drive afterward are a danger to everyone around them. They should be sanctioned, just not by death penalty, which, again, make no sense whatsoever in any situation.
Cannabis isn’t a harmless plant, unless it is a variety without THC (study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9940647/). And I doubt a smuggler would import Cannabis without THC. Smuggled cannabis are almost always THC heavy plants, and considering how much he seem to have with him, he either intended to fly to the moon and back, or to sell it around.
Now, THC heavy cannabis is a problem because, like alcohol, it impair the jugement about how ready to drive one is, and I’ve seen many of my friends get into accidents because they thought they where somehow not affected by THC. My words were harsh, no doubt, but I never called for any of them to get death penalties.
Edit: drug resistance exists, of course, but isn’t frequent. I happen to have a mild resistance to opioid based painkillers (found out after a surgery, worst pain I have been for a long time 😅)
People choose to “take insomnia” every second of every minute of every hour of every day, in thousands of ways.
a plant so harmless that someone felt compelled to smuggle it into a country thats known to be extremely hostile to it, ignoring hundreds of warnings, bypassing several opportunities to get rid of it, and ultimately being caught with it and facing the very predictable, very openly warned and expressed repercussions?
A plant that drives someone to do that doesnt sound so harmless to me.
Well that’s only natural because you’re just a random idiot.
People would smuggle chocolate bars if they were made illegal, that doesn’t make them harmful.
So far the Singaporean government has killed a lot more people than cannabis ever did, and for what?
People would smuggle chocolate bars if they were made illegal, that doesn’t make them harmful.
What if I told you a chocolate bar killed my family?
Well I would be lying but WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
wOn’T sOmEoNe ThInK oF tHe ChIlDrEn
(You want to legalize Pedophila)
Where the literal fuck did you get that idea!?
Well I would be lying but WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
Sounds like something that should be said to the stupid fuckers commiting suicide by government by doing this stupid shit.
A plant that drives someone to do that doesnt sound so harmless to me.
Audrey II
It’s a question about respecting a society’s conventions. When you enter a country, you choose to abide with the laws in place, even if you disagree with them. Singapore makes it very clear what happens to those who smuggle drugs.
Never respect a murderous society, it’s stupid.
While one should avoid getting executed, it’s also fucked up that country does it
While one should avoid getting executed,
Wise words to live by.
Fine people for conventions, sure. You don’t see any mena country straight up executing women for not wearing a hijab, despite their claims that it erodes ‘morality’.
Their country, their law. The best way to force them to change is to not give them your business.
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.
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.
Interesting, is it possible to receive that paper, and surrender yourself immediately and basically say “I’m sorry I don’t want to do this anymore here take it please don’t kill me”?
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Why would you give your money to a country executing children for existing?
Was sent there by my employer, so not my money
could you have refused?
Of course, you can refuse anything your voluntary employer asks you to do! 😉
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.
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.
If objective morality isn’t real, the only reason you’ll have to condemn this is that it goes against your culture. Which is cultural supremacy to some degree
Objective morality isn’t real. If it were, you’d be able to prove it.
And it’s difficult to argue, coming from a deeply red area of the US that I’m coming from a culture that vilifies the death penalty.
The closest you’ll ever get to an objective moral truth is that you’re free to believe any fucking thing you want, but your rights stop at you. Imposing your beliefs on another living being is supremacy.
If God is real, then Objective Morality is real. If white society wishes to secularise, they have to realise that they no longer have a justification to tell other cultures what to do.
Ok.
God isn’t real. If a being of infinite power does exist, it is apathetic, ignorant, or cruel.
If the source of your objective morality is a fairy tale, you have no basis for claiming your morality is objective, let alone accurate.
How do you define cruelty without God being real? How can you know for sure that God is apathetic or ignorant?
If there is no basis for objective morality at all, we have no grounds to condemn other cultures for actions that go against our culture. I would condemn cruelty happening abroad because I believe everyone is made in the image of God, and God’s commandment for all of Humanity was to love one and other. If God isn’t real, then why should I care what happens in other countries, if the only morality I have is based on my white, western culture?
If there is no God, humans are just lumps of cells anyway, not too far removed from plants and animals. So why would it be my business what is going on abroad?
How do you define cruelty without God being real?
Pretty simply, do you require help knowing the difference between what is cruel and what is not? You might need psychiatric help my guy
How can you know for sure that God is apathetic or ignorant?
Because of the suffering of innocents. Any all powerful creature that allows suffering on the scale we are familiar with either doesn’t know about it, and is thus ignorant, or doesn’t care, and is thus apathetic. Perhaps this creature both knows and cares, in which case it is either powerless to stop it, and therefore not all powerful, or it is a cruel being, and not one by which to set your moral compass.
If there is no basis for objective morality at all,
There isn’t. Morality is a supposition.
we have no grounds to condemn other cultures for actions that go against our culture.
This relies on a number of assumptions which are mostly wrong. Am I condemning an entire culture or the actions of a few people? Do the people of that culture think this is a good idea? Are there members of that group that condemn this? Are those members represented? Is the practice being condemned harmful?
I would condemn cruelty happening abroad because I believe everyone is made in the image of God, and God’s commandment for all of Humanity was to love one and other. If God isn’t real, then why should I care what happens in other countries, if the only morality I have is based on my white, western culture?
So you require someone else to tell you what is right and what is not? Are you incapable of independent thought? Are you devoid of compassion and empathy?
An empathetic person would abhor the suffering of others without divine intervention.
Should God appear to you and demand you sacrifice your eldest son, would you begin sharpening your knife?
If there is no God, humans are just lumps of cells anyway, not too far removed from plants and animals.
We are not removed greatly from animals no. We are animals. We’re pretty far removed from plants though.
So why would it be my business what is going on abroad
Empathy my guy. I was kind of kidding before but now I’m actually concerned you lack basic emotional skills that are natural and innate to most people. That’s definitionally psychopathy, you might want to look in to that.
Objective moral foundation: capital punishment is bad.
The objective moral foundation would also says everyone should deserve to live, yet all the capitalist countries are punishing those who can’t work.
Let’s not cast stones from a glass house
You’ll need to justify it on something though
I actually don’t. It is fundamental enough that I can take it as an axiom. If you want to claim its negation, the burden of the argument is on you, so go ahead and make the case against it.
Fundamental on what?
I take it to be self evident. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom
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.
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.
Are you sure it’s that cheap in Singapore if it’s illegal there? A kilo is about 20 grand here in Estonia, has been for ages. When buying by the gram anyway, I don’t know anyone who buys it by the kilo. Assume it would be a bit cheaper them. And we don’t execute smugglers, it’s just illegal.
I’d assume if they kill smugglers it’ll be way more expensive in Singapore
“Oh that? That’s my personal consumption kilo. Reason for visit? Business.”
Then why wouldn’t he import 499g to not risk his life
Someone calibrates the scale 0.2% off and he’s still dead.
Imagine getting executed over air pressure or humidity
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
Singapore - “we straight up kill drug smugglers to death and have done so for 50 years”. Drug smuggler - “I’m sure they’re exaggerating”
Singapore is notorious for having extreme penalties for relatively minor crimes
“Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?!”
Sound of firing squad loading rifles
“This is democracy manifest!”
firing squad fires
Is picture related or not? If so, looks like he’s got a few keys of coke or meth, a key of heroin or MDMA (tan powder bag) and a bunch of bags of pills that I assume are meth because they are into taking that shit orally in Asia.
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 small and the government is heavy handed in anything drug related. A “massive” anti drug sweep netted less cannabis than the smuggler in this post had.
https://www.mha.gov.sg/media-room/publications/compilation-of-drug-related-studies-and-surveys/
Based on the survey findings, it is estimated that about 0.7% of Singapore residents had consumed an illicit drug at least once in the last 12 months.
Here I am in Canada, Just finished a perfectly legal grow for my own personal use and got 28 oz from it
I am reading “Singaporean man executed for importing cannibals” and I am thinking “why would anyone import cannibals???”
