Drug laws are draconian
It always struck me as strange that the drug laws in South East Asia are so draconian when measured against the paltry punishments for other crimes that appear to the casual observer to be far more destructive.
To impose the death penalty for smuggling marijuana, a plant which is readily grown throughout South East Asia, seems a grossly misplaced priority. Other far more pernicious activities, such as human trafficking, forced prostitution, illegal logging, poaching of endangered species, gross violations of human rights, and the religious fanaticism that manifests itself in horrific acts of terrorism, seem to earn little more than a slap on the wrist.
To put it bluntly (no pun intended) from an outsider's perspective, the sentencing of a cleric with close ties to a fanatical and murderous terrorist group, which planned the indiscriminate slaughter of many young men and women, causing incalculable loss to the important tourist industries of Indonesia, to three years in prison is scandalous.
To compare that to a possible death sentence for an Australian woman for carrying three pounds of marijuana, however reckless that act appears, is to move into the realms of absurdity. Furthermore, in certain areas of Indonesia it is perfectly legal to sell psychedelic mushrooms and I would assume there are other psychtropic substances in other areas that are similarly unregulated.
Whether or not these substances are allowed as traditional medicines, they may certainly be more hazardous than marijuana. The overwhelming popularity of betel chewing, palm wine, cigarettes and cheroot smoking certainly impose enormous health costs that far outweigh those of cannabis.
Indonesia is a lovely country with many unfortunate problems, and I am not writing to say that drugs are not one of them. All I am saying is that I would feel a lot better if it was the murderous terrorists and militias and the fiends that illegally destroy the irreplacable beauty of the forests and the seas that were facing the gallows and not some hapless hippy-chick on her way to a full moon dance party with an ill-considered choice of party favors.
A. GALLI, New York