Another Case Of Taking “Draw The Line” Too Seriously

Posted on January 17, 2007 — The Monkey
Filed Under Drugs, Injustice |

An Australian man is likely to escape the death penalty for trafficking 495 grams of cannabis into Singapore because he possessed just 5 grams under the limit. Instead he faces between 5 and 20 years jail as well as between 5 and 15 strokes of the cane (What the hell is with the caning?)

I strongly disprove of the death penalty for ANY reason, and I also strongly support the use of drugs (Perhaps not trafficking drugs, but what else can you do when the government bans something that should be perfectly legal?) So forget about all that for second. What I am more interested in here is the difference between a maximum of 20 years jail and the death penalty being 5 grams of cannabis.

Obviously if you are going to police something then you have to set up some sort of boundaries, but those boundaries should be used as a guide and should not be held to the line. There are so many cases of these types of things happening in life, for example; the legal drinking age in most countries is 18 or 21, but its not as if a person magically becomes responsible enough to consume alcohol at 12am on their 18th or 21st birthday! Many people are ready to drink alcohol at a younger age, and many people probably shouldn’t be drinking until a much older age. We all mature at different rates! Now in the case of legal drinking ages, it doesn’t really matter a great deal because its only about something trivial like drinking alcohol so the set age limit is the most appropriate way of dealing with this. (I do however think it should be up to the parents, and not the government but thats another issue).

It’s when these limits are applied to much more serious issues that things get a little crazy; 495 grams = 5 - 20 years jail, 500 grams = death. It seems that this man probably knew the legal limit and carried slightly under just to be safe, a loop-hole which is a side effect of having those types of policies set in stone. The same also goes in cases of pedophilia where a 17 year old can be charged as a child molester and receive 10 years mandatory prison for having oral sex with a 15 year old just because the 15 year old was not yet 16.

When creating these laws, obviously they have to ask themselves “where do we draw the line?” and obviously they have to come to some sort of conclusion on this, but when you’re taking about imprisoning and even putting people to death then you need to look at each case individually on all aspects such as maturity, intent and the circumstances. Not to mention how close the person was to breaking the limit.

Related links:

Australian likely to escape death for cannabis

Why Is Genarlow Wilson In Prison?? - Petition and donations for a boy serving 10 years in prison for having oral sex with a 15 year old when he was 17.






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