The cannabis seized from Omar is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 144 abusers for a week.
What the hell is up with this bizarre line in the article? “Addiction”? “Abusers”? Is the the article writer fucking serious with this Reefer Madness shit? What a god damn clown.
It’s an Asian outlet. They never really had much sympathy for them.
Those hopeless addicts are consuming a bit over 3 grams of weed per week. Definite threat to society there.
And of course the guy being executed is not from the Chinese elite, he’s a Singaporean Malay.
No, 1009.1g divided by 144 potheads is 7g. So the article assumes they are smoking a gram a day each. There should be protests about this, and I think the author of this article should be fired, it’s so insensitive.
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.
Singapore loves to pretend it’s a modern country with it’s gardens and fancy buildings.
But beneath the surface is an overworked population ruled by a family dictatorship.
It’s china with a better passport. There is no freedom of press there.
The dictatorship is how you get the gardens and fancy buildings.
family dictatorship.
It’s effectively a single party state with an elected dictator, but AFAIK their prime ministers and presidents don’t come all from the same family.
You’re right it’s not a dictatorship like North Korea, but it’s elections are also not as clean and fair as other modern democracies.
The same ruling party has dominated since independence, and maintained structural imbalance suppressing the ability for any meaningful opposition to rise.
While leadership in Singapore isn’t hereditary, the nation has been guided by a very small political elite originating from Lee Kuan Yew.
No matter how you spin it thats barbaric
I am reading “Singaporean man executed for importing cannibals” and I am thinking “why would anyone import cannibals???”
Asia pretty much will execute people for importing drugs
“Asia” is a HUGE place, with all kinds of different people, countries and cultures.
60% of the world’s population lives in Asia.
I am currently smoking a joint in Asia. I bought it legally, in the shop down the street.
So…yeah…no death penalty for me.
Yet China manufactures a large percentage of the fentanyl sold on the US black market.
I can’t help wondering if this is Opium Wars payback against the anglophones.
You’d think they’d be targeting the UK then, no?
what a shithole
Is that a mirror or a microphone?
And that’s why I’ll never move to Singapore.
Because you cant avoid repercussions of easily avoidable actions?
Very smug, how many innocent deaths are you comfortable with?
Cops are found planting evidence all around the world… the judged are proven innocent with DNA every day.
… and even if everything above wasn’t the case, even IF every one of the guilty were truly guilty… they were each murdered by the State, many with no blood on their hands.
It’s an abomination. But be smug about it, it lets everybody know what you are
You know what else is easily avoidable? Not murdering people. Singapore should try it
Because they will never let him in in the first place. Vast majority of countries don’t take in immigrants.
No, because I require prescriptions that would earn me a death sentence there.
You might want to get a better doctor. Cannabis has been found to be ineffective for most of the conditions it’s prescribed for. The very few that it has shown effectiveness for have better treatment options available. https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/evidence-lacking-medical-cannabis-most-conditions
That’s an appropriate username.
Yep, thats the typical response when people are backed into a corner and cant make a valid retort.
LOL you didnt realize that wasnt comment OP. Username still fits.
And another one attacking the person cause they cant say anything against the message.
William Gibson (author of Neuromancer among other things, not all of them good) published an article about Singapore 30 years ago. It’s titled Disneyland with the Death Penalty.
33 years later and much of this is still very relevant. It has dated somewhat, but accurately reflects what I experienced in Singapore during work travel over the past few years.
At the least, if you’re interested in what dystopian science fiction writers think about Singapore it certainly dropped some puzzles pieces into place for me.
Disneyland with the Death Penalty.
Actually it is pretty fitting since their judicial system is medieval. They still do caning for example.
Disneyland with the Death Penalty
I’ve also heard it referred to as China Lite.
Long ago, I dated a Singaporean woman, closely connected to the ruling elite, educated at British public schools and a top-tier university. According to her, along with the relentless propaganda claiming Singapore is a meritocracy, there is also a deep underlying culture of corruption. It’s bad for your health and future income to compete in business against ruling-family-connected ventures. When bidding on major contracts, you’ll need insiders or their proxies to be partners or you’ll be frozen out. There’s nothing as vulgar as open bribery happening, but self-dealing, conflicts of interest and biased courts deliver the same outcomes. And whatever you do, don’t be a prominent member of an opposition party if you value your livelihood and freedom.
And if you’re a Singaporean Malay, know your place or you’ll end up in deep trouble. There are a few tokenism opportunities if you don’t rock the boat.
I’ve been there on business a few times. At least it seems they’re not persecuting gay people as much anymore, and civil society is a bit more open than it was a couple of decades ago. They even seem slightly less obsessed with caning and massive fines for minor offences than they used to be. But “less stifling” is far from the same as “free.”
Fuck that sounds weird and uncomfortable of a place. I need some sketch to feel comfortable.
I need some scotch to feel comfortable.
well I’m sure he won’t ever do that again!
surely he learned his lesson.
Challenging to criticize Singapore if you’re from somewhere with monthly massacres of school children.
Not everyone on the internet lives in the US
Not at all. Murder is murder regardless of the country.
How could you possibly think that is challenging? Of course it should be criticized.
Two things can both be bad.
Impossible
the monthly massacres aren’t government policy. executing a cannabis trafficker is.
There is an active policy of not preventing cold massacres. Hope that clarifies the point.
… and Singapore has an active policy of condoning and committing murder. That’s bad.
I pray that clears things up for you.
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aren’t government policy
That could be debated. They’re certainly at least the standard they walk past and accept.
if you’re putting officially written and sanctioned government executions in writing up against the unofficial unsanctioned killings not in writing, I’d be more scared of what the government has written down in policy as there is no possible alternative.
That makes a ton of difference to the dead schoolkids.
the article doesn’t say anything about the schoolkids POV on the dead traffickers or maybe you should just stay on topic
Good news! Lemme just go to the parents and tell them!
I don’t see what schoolkids parents has to do with a government sanctioned execution of a cannabis trafficker.
Not very relevant distinction for the murdered children
not really relevant to the topic at hand.
Singapore makes it extremely clear this is the punishment for smuggling any drugs.
This is what the paper disimberkment form used to look like before they switched to an electronic version. I think the electronic version says something similar.
They also make sure to repeat that on any flights landing there.
Once you’re on the plane, you’re already committed.
If they declare them before disembarking, they will likely avoid capital punishment. Still will result in a heavy sentencing, though.
That’s really fucked up.
It probably is fucked up. But if you know the consequences of getting caught, why would you risk it? If freedom to do drugs is important either be in a jurisdiction that is lenient.
I mean you can try to change the laws and try to protest and get political change, but that wouldn’t leave you much off in Singapore’s authoritarian air.
So the question is, was the hit of recreational drug that important to take the risk?
I’m not saying what or what shouldn’t be, I’m just saying knowing you know what IS, why would you? It’s like you know lava is hot, but you step in it anyway because it should be a morally a volcanic rock.
was the hit of recreational drug that important to take the risk
He didn’t get executed for taking a “hit”.
He got executed for trafficking a kilo.
Which is still pretty stupid, because 500 grams is the cutoff for the death penalty. He would have been better off to bring in 499 grams. But I assume he was going to make a pretty good profit, and that money was his main motivation.
Right, clearly so was the risk of a quick buck worth his life? Should be the question.
The guy was an idiot. Doesn’t change the fact that Singaporean authoritarianism is fucked up. Being an idiot shouldn’t be a death sentence.
Being an idiot shouldn’t be a death sentence.
Sometimes I wish it were. But then I’ll do something idiotic and have second thoughts.
Death sentence for being an idiot is exactly what the US needs right now
More than half the population would be executed.
Now now, don’t threaten us with a good time!
Imagine killing a human being for possession of a harmless plant. It’s wildly unjust.
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.
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’.
While one should avoid getting executed, it’s also fucked up that country does it
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!
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.
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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.
so 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.
Weed shouldn’t be a crime. Driving under influence, or tired, or stressed out, should be, but it have nothing to do with cannabis per se.
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 sense 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.
lmao as if drivers needed cannabis to be dangerous. Cars should be outlawed, not weed.
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.
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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.
there are many place where public transportation and bikes can’t go, especially in the countryside
Are we still talking about Singapore?
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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.
If you think im dangerous when I’m driving high you should see me sober :3
(just kidding, I don’t drive)
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)
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.
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.
A lot of the mules are either extorted into carrying it, or don’t even know that someone has slipped something into their luggage.
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
When buying by the gram anyway
If it’s 20 per G retail, it’s probably about a third of that price per kilo. Risk premium and distributor profit.
And yeah, I’ve never smelled it anywhere I’ve visited in Estonia (or any of the other Baltic states). I like a simple life not involving fines or police shakedowns, so I never buy it unless it’s legal, or (as in the Netherlands and Spain) if not strictly legal, effectively so.
“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
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 journalistic swill.
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 into the Port of Singapore over a plank covered in faced-up used heroin needles.
I don’t assume either way. Are you American?
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.
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.
