Two Thais Sentenced To Death By Hanging

[Tony Clifton]

A tough sentence for sure, I wonder if they knew the Malaysia before hand, my guess NO. SAD

They have big signs up at the airport that state drug smuggling carries the death penalty in Malaysia, and I assume at border crossings as well. This is a barbaric sentence, but last time I went through KL they made it clear what would happen if you were caught smuggling.

Everybody should watch the movie "Dadah is Death". Its quite and old one about Barlow and Chambers. It should be made mandatory in schools to watch it!

Try the movie Return To Paradise.

[webfact]

source: Wikipedia

[Supernova]

death is a bit harsh just for cannabis

Agreed, considering its legal in Amsterdam

You mean, decriminalized; where the possession of small amounts is not an offense. I don't think weed has been legalized anywhere in the world.

[waza]

They have been using canabis in South east asia for thousands of years, with out any moral or societal decay. It only became illegal when the yanks paid them to do so.

[kurtgruen]

#1 drug = Tobacco

#2 drug = Alcohol

#3 drug = Cannabis

This kind of sentence makes no sense at all, when governments allow the sale of cigarettes and alcohol which takes far many more lives than soft drugs like dope. Heroin is another matter; but the death sentence?? A good long jail term is punishment enough... and hanging!? I couldn't think of a more barbarous and inhumane way of ending someones life.

I guess everbody has it's own opinion yes tobacco is a drug so is alcohol so is coffee and tea but I have never seen anybody who had this drugs and then switched to heroin or ice or what ever.

But many users of dope just do that !!

Bull! Alcohol is the entry drug for many drug addicts, some who have never smoked pot, before getting into the serious drugs, but they got drunk and stupid first.

Back in Canada, I know dozens of perfectly normal, hard working (and also retired) people, who smoke pot. They don't use jabba, heroin or coke and some of them don't even drink.

My daughter for example, holds down three jobs, pays regular mortgage payments and works out in the gym regularly, with her husband. They both like to smoke dope, but neither likes Alcohol and they don't take any other drugs.

My other daughter, has the odd glass of wine, smokes a joint once in a while and doesn't do any other drugs. Her and her husband have regular jobs, too.

People who think that people who smoke pot, are some sort of low lives, are just ignorant. Who do you think builds and designs your computer programs, runs your servers, fixes your cars, etc. Perfectly normal people, just like the rest of us.

As far as the entry drug argument goes, I still believe that if there is such a thing as an entry drug, Alcohol is probalby the biggest one.

Anyways, attitutes are hard to change and I am probalby wasting my time to even talk about this issue.

All I can say is, I would rather see my kids growing up, smoking dope, than going out there fighting, driving drunk and making stupid fools out of themselves. (I did enough of that for the whole family already in the past ;-)

I choose not to drink, not to smoke and not to smoke dope, but I think it should remain a choice for people, as long as they don't hurt others in the process.

[Supernova]

I don't believe there is such a thing as an "entry level" drug. This is pure myth driven by policy makers looking for a reason to outlaw certain soft drugs.

Edited April 22, 2009 by Supernova

[dukkha]

They have been using canabis in South east asia for thousands of years, with out any moral or societal decay. It only became illegal when the yanks paid them to do so.

Succinct, to the point and accurate. Do you hold an academic chair cos I reckon ya oughta. Sound reasoning always a pleasure to read, but not too all frequent on Thaivisa...oh well we are a varied lot, an oddsk species...brutal really.. Dukkha

[Phatcharanan]

#1 drug = Tobacco

#2 drug = Alcohol

#3 drug = Cannabis

This kind of sentence makes no sense at all, when governments allow the sale of cigarettes and alcohol which takes far many more lives than soft drugs like dope. Heroin is another matter; but the death sentence?? A good long jail term is punishment enough... and hanging!? I couldn't think of a more barbarous and inhumane way of ending someones life.

I guess everbody has it's own opinion yes tobacco is a drug so is alcohol so is coffee and tea but I have never seen anybody who had this drugs and then switched to heroin or ice or what ever.

But many users of dope just do that !!

I choose not to drink, not to smoke and not to smoke dope, but I think it should remain a choice for people, as long as they don't hurt others in the process.

Well, those two Thais had a choice and they picked a country that has the death penalty for trafficking. Thats a pretty dumb choice.

[Brigante7]

#1 drug = Tobacco

#2 drug = Alcohol

#3 drug = Cannabis

This kind of sentence makes no sense at all, when governments allow the sale of cigarettes and alcohol which takes far many more lives than soft drugs like dope. Heroin is another matter; but the death sentence?? A good long jail term is punishment enough... and hanging!? I couldn't think of a more barbarous and inhumane way of ending someones life.

I guess everbody has it's own opinion yes tobacco is a drug so is alcohol so is coffee and tea but I have never seen anybody who had this drugs and then switched to heroin or ice or what ever.

But many users of dope just do that !!

This is incorrect and not supported by statistics.

The only correlation one can see in a limited number of countries, and this is not related to the drug itself, is that a person not afraid to use illegal substance is less afraid to use heavier illegal substances. But there is no truth to the gateway theory with lesser drugs as a joint as a stepping stone towards heroin...

Statistics can be made to say what people want them to say..

It's obvious that starting with a harmless cannabis joint leads onto more substantial and harder drugs....how can i say this.. from my own personal experience and of many friends from my younger days. We all started smoking weed and moved onto harder drugs..

I've never yet met a heroin user who did not start out smoking weed, moving quickly onto speed/coke/pills then the heavy stuff.

I know countless people who smoke/smoked weed but never moved on to heroin/crack, myself included.

[mahtin]

Their lives already ended 5 years ago.

Sympathy to the families.

[coconutmonkey]

Yes, harsh....

If they don't want people selling it, why not decriminalize it? Surely alcohol is the most evil drug of all!

[Electra]

Well, let's be positive. These hang 'em high stories give the sanctimonious of the forum yet another opportunity to vent their spleen and practise a superiority that their drink sodden habits might not otherwise afford.

Edited April 23, 2009 by Electra

[geriatrickid]

Cannabis hardly ends with anyone dying due to an OD. The classification of cannabis as a "narcotic" is not based on science but upon the old European and current US approach to the active ingredient, THC.

it is an abitrary classification and no one can argue against that point.

I have no sympathy for drug traffickers of any kind! Today it is "only" cannabis tomorrow it will be heroin or ya baa they trade.

Nope. Cannabis is not a profitable product to trade. The return is significantly less than chemicals like amphetamines or heroin. The major drug trafficers and their friends in uniform along the various borders keep to the profitable heroin, lumber, humans and endangered species trade for that reason. Look at the space a few bales of cannabis takes up. Replace it with heroin and you make millions, not thousands.

It's obvious that starting with a harmless cannabis joint leads onto more substantial and harder drugs....how can i say this.. from my own personal experience and of many friends from my younger days. We all started smoking weed and moved onto harder drugs..I've never yet met a heroin user who did not start out smoking weed, moving quickly onto speed/coke/pills then the heavy stuff.

I think that's a reflection of your friends and not the drugs. There are thousands of studies out there that have looked at this subject and there aren't any that support your position. can you cite some from respectable publications? I went to school with plenty of people that smoked weed. I am not exagerating when I say that 2 went on to become clerks of the Supreme Court , 1 was a Rhodes Scholar, 2 made it to the Olympic team, a few became doctors and others became robber barons of finance. Some others just went on to become responsible taxpayers or good parents. I know that the engineer that used to sit beside me in a finance class was the guy who designed a major component of the space station. The jocks that drank alot just went on to become fat slobs. I could argue that the weed made them successful. It didn't. They didn't have addictive personalities or physiology.

I don't believe there is such a thing as an "entry level" drug. This is pure myth driven by policy makers looking for a reason to outlaw certain soft drugs.

Would you mind explaining that point to the guy above you? I don't have the patience. thanks.

[Svenn]

Anyone who's studied even a minimal amount of criminal law knows these punishments are primitive and insane, the angry old men on this forum supporting it are just as ignorant. there's only one culprit for this barbarity- kohn jek. never trust kohn jeen to do anything involves impartiality, they're incapable of it. hopefully the malay will regain control of their country and singapore and this won't happen anymore.

[fruittbatt]

Harsh anti-drug laws and sporadic "wars on drugs" simply kill petty dealers or users on the street and drive the bigger guys further underground or into more corrupt practices, like buying protection from authorities.

There are no winners in drug wars or harsh legislation. The example of Thailand's offensive against yaba several years ago shows just how futile it is to kill drug offenders and dealers. The murder of hundreds during the "war on drugs" has been absolutely zero deterrent to yaba, cannabis, pharmaceuticals, heroin use in this country: quite the opposite.

And if we are arguing for harsh laws based on the social effects of drug use, surely the road toll over Songkran 2009 indicates that alcohol should be outlawed??? Can you imagine the outcry if this potentially lethal preferred drug of most TV readers was suddenly made illegal???

[bobbin]

I think this "drug issue" pointedly shows that many TV posters are elderly and suffer from the conditioning they received earlier in their lives.

Society has moved on, and certainly, as far as marijuana is concerned, no longer considers it to be a serious problem.

As noted earlier in the thread, marijuana has been used in this part of the world for centuries. Another poster noted several examples of users who lead productive lives. Common sense tells that, with the millions of pot smokers in the world, if it were a problem, we would be inundated with the proof that it is a dangerous drug. We are not. Empirical evidence. The basis of scientific knowledge.

Many of these posters would be jostling for the front row to watch the Saudis behead their "law-breakers".

This is your brain.

This is your brain corrupted by propaganda.

Any questions?

[imjustagirl]

#1 drug = Tobacco

#2 drug = Alcohol

#3 drug = Cannabis

This kind of sentence makes no sense at all, when governments allow the sale of cigarettes and alcohol which takes far many more lives than soft drugs like dope. Heroin is another matter; but the death sentence?? A good long jail term is punishment enough... and hanging!? I couldn't think of a more barbarous and inhumane way of ending someones life.

I guess everbody has it's own opinion yes tobacco is a drug so is alcohol so is coffee and tea but I have never seen anybody who had this drugs and then switched to heroin or ice or what ever.

But many users of dope just do that !!

This is incorrect and not supported by statistics.

The only correlation one can see in a limited number of countries, and this is not related to the drug itself, is that a person not afraid to use illegal substance is less afraid to use heavier illegal substances. But there is no truth to the gateway theory with lesser drugs as a joint as a stepping stone towards heroin...

Statistics can be made to say what people want them to say..

It's obvious that starting with a harmless cannabis joint leads onto more substantial and harder drugs....how can i say this.. from my own personal experience and of many friends from my younger days. We all started smoking weed and moved onto harder drugs..

I've never yet met a heroin user who did not start out smoking weed, moving quickly onto speed/coke/pills then the heavy stuff.

is it possible it is a gateway drug BECAUSE it is illegal and as such people then mix with shady types and are more likely to come into direct exposure and be openly offered to try other more danderous drugs.......

[jackr]

Everybody should watch the movie "Dadah is Death". Its quite and old one about Barlow and Chambers. It should be made mandatory in schools to watch it!

Return to Paradise with Joaquin Pheonix and Vince Vaughn is also a good one.

Its only a bit of dope

Around 20kgs only a bit of dope

[jackr]

I choose not to drink, not to smoke and not to smoke dope, but I think it should remain a choice for people, as long as they don't hurt others in the process.

Fair enough but those who smuggle and push it one others need to be dealth with and that is the issue here.

[marc mcmillan]

death is a bit harsh just for cannabis

Agreed, considering its legal in Amsterdam

It's not legal in Amsterdam ..It's just tolerated

[rossigee]

I guess everbody has it's own opinion yes tobacco is a drug so is alcohol so is coffee and tea but I have never seen anybody who had this drugs and then switched to heroin or ice or what ever.

But many users of dope just do that !!

That's because tobacco, coffee and alcohol addicts can all buy their kicks at a law-abiding, tax-paying local shop and are regularly encourages to do so via prominent advertising. The 'many users of dope' you refer to that fall down the slippery slope with the harder drugs often do so *because* they have to buy their gear (in many, not all cases) from unsavoury, money-grabbing, would-sell-their-grandmother-for-cash, tax-dodging scumbags who might not be able to (or want to) get hold of or sell good dope all year round, due to some seasonal drugs crack-down or big local bust. However, when the dope's out they're probably still trying to get rid of their latest stock of smack, crack, ice, pills, powder, whatever - all at very affordable prices (I would imagine! I wouldn't know or care, mind).

Don't blame the users of dope for switching to harder shit. If it were legal, they probably wouldn't have any harder shit pushed under their noses. You ought to read a bit more about the underlying reasons that dope became illegal and consider what your response might have been if dope was just another legal drug in most (truly free) parts of the world

-

Ross

[geriatrickid]

[is it possible it is a gateway drug BECAUSE it is illegal and as such people then mix with shady types and are more likely to come into direct exposure and be openly offered to try other more danderous drugs.......

Valid question. There are physiological and psychological predispositions to addiction. Cannabis itself is not addictive. Although a cannabis user may demonstrate addictive traits it is not due to the cannabis itself but is a result of the subject's physiological and psychological state. This contrasts significantly with amphetamine and heroin users that may also have addictive personalities but who quickly develop a physical dependency upon the drugs.

The person that uses cannabis and moves on to other drugs would most likely have started the hard drugs in the absence of cannabis because the person's environment or predisposition to addictive behaviour would have encouraged him to use the harder drugs. I believe that a review of the literature will demonstrate this position's validity. It would be more logical to argue that the use of cannabis prevents the user with a predispposition for addiction from moving on to "harder" drugs.

In plain english, it's a cop out to say that cannabis leads people to use heroin etc. If you look at junkies they almost always have a cigarette dangling out of their mouths. I'd say that there is a closer link to cigarette smoking and heroin use than there is between cannabis use and heroin use. I'd go so far as to say that cigarette users are more likely to be junkies than cannabis smokers.

At the end of the day, two men will die for engaging in the trade of a substance that in itself is less addictive than tobacco. F-ed up logic.

Edited April 23, 2009 by geriatrickid

[aussiejosh]

You have to be pretty stupid and understanding the risks of what you are doing when you take drugs to places like these. I mean its a completely useless act killing someone over something that doesn't harm anyone, and probably should be a human rights violation. But that is the law in that country and they understood that. dam_n shame though, over something as small as a plant....

As for the weed being stronger, i can say that in Thailand it is not. In the US UK Australia they have hydroponics, but here its mainly ditch weed unless you get imported and its no where near as good as the west.

As someone who has been in trouble here for possession I can tell you that contrary to popular belief Thailand isn't that strict unless your importing, especially if your a minor (As I was at the time)...

Ignorance is bliss.

[noquit]

#1 drug = Tobacco

#2 drug = Alcohol

#3 drug = Cannabis

This kind of sentence makes no sense at all, when governments allow the sale of cigarettes and alcohol which takes far many more lives than soft drugs like dope. Heroin is another matter; but the death sentence?? A good long jail term is punishment enough... and hanging!? I couldn't think of a more barbarous and inhumane way of ending someones life.

How about impalement ?

Or a stay in the Iron Lady ?

So many more horrible ways to go.

Snap, and it's over.

Seems like hanging would be a humane way to go compared to some of the other ways.

[radogwinemaker]

Barbaric A-Holes!

[aussiejosh]

And for all you who support the laws and are morons... Please read, now I know this is about America, but what makes you think your country didnt just follow for fashion reasons and actually did some studies? Because trust me Thailand didn't.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/200...anaIllegal.html

[cat5]

#1 drug = Tobacco

#2 drug = Alcohol

#3 drug = Cannabis

This kind of sentence makes no sense at all, when governments allow the sale of cigarettes and alcohol which takes far many more lives than soft drugs like dope. Heroin is another matter; but the death sentence?? A good long jail term is punishment enough... and hanging!? I couldn't think of a more barbarous and inhumane way of ending someones life.

I guess everbody has it's own opinion yes tobacco is a drug so is alcohol so is coffee and tea but I have never seen anybody who had this drugs and then switched to heroin or ice or what ever.

But many users of dope just do that !!

I think the point about alcohol is that when misused it is the direct cause of many social problems and thus can be considered more harmful than say cannabis.

Hanging is a cruel way to kill. It should not be in use any more.

[robblok]

death is a bit harsh just for cannabis

Agreed, considering its legal in Amsterdam

It's not legal in Amsterdam ..It's just tolerated

Yes its tolerated in a way that is legal. I am Dutch so i know a lil bit of our system. The Dutch however are revising the system because of pressure from other countries and a crazy christian goverment. I have done weed in the past and i have known many others who did too. It does not have to become a problem at all it all depends on the person who is using it.

But same can be said for many addictions it depends on the person. Alcohol is for the most part not bad still there are alcoholics. Computer games are nice.. still some people die from playing too long. What i mean to say is that it depends on the person not the drug.

I have stopped drugs a because they don't help me in my new healthy lifestyle, but i don't see them as evil or a problem.

[aussiejosh]

#1 drug = Tobacco

#2 drug = Alcohol

#3 drug = Cannabis

This kind of sentence makes no sense at all, when governments allow the sale of cigarettes and alcohol which takes far many more lives than soft drugs like dope. Heroin is another matter; but the death sentence?? A good long jail term is punishment enough... and hanging!? I couldn't think of a more barbarous and inhumane way of ending someones life.

I guess everbody has it's own opinion yes tobacco is a drug so is alcohol so is coffee and tea but I have never seen anybody who had this drugs and then switched to heroin or ice or what ever.

But many users of dope just do that !!

Ah yes, most stoners become heroin addicts..... or other types of addicts yes that makes complete and utter sense. I can see you have done in depth and thorough research into the matter.

Lets look at your argument logically for 1 second. I'd say around 40- 50% of teenagers in Western environments will at some point try marijuana, something like 10% will try party drugs (based on no research just things you will see around if you are in the age category I'm specifically talking about, like I am). I'd say less than 1 or 2% of people will move onto harder drugs, most of the people I know on harder drugs started on harder drugs. And thats still under the presumption that they are in some way bad for you. Who says that the meaning of life isn't to die ODing in the back of an alley I haven't heard a better reason for life which will click for everyone anyway. Plus people OD because it is illegal... Criminalizing the substances means its more dangerous for the users because of lack of regulation.

From someone with experience with a lot of drugs, I have taken ecstasy, LSD, Mescaline, Adreanahol, speed, PCP, cocaine, and smoked meth all just to try them(Not going to say where for legal reasons). Put them all down afterwards and said, wow that was fun, never been compelled to try them again aside from the ones which left me with little after effects like LSD. I will smoke an ouce of weed every 3 days and still work 9 - 5 which operating my own small business and a website which does travel bookings around what is even to a 'dope fiend' a high end rate of smoking. Anyway as I was saying from someone who has taken a lot of drugs and not have had any problem, your all pussy's, complete and utter pussy's. People with addictive psychologies will always find something to ruin themselves on there will always be that 5 - 10% of the population which is useless. Don't let them take the excuse it was a substance fault, the fault was within them from the start.

And to those of you who are parents or related to someone who has died from drugs, my sympathies to you, but don't blame the substance, it is more likely your fault than anyone else's.

[marsteele]

What a pity the U.K. does not follow this example.

And the Australian

Yes I agree 100%