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Serious Question: If we implemented the death penalty for heroin trafficking, would it have an affect?

We could flog people for parking illegally, and I'm sure we wouldn't see so many cars parked in red zones. My point being, it isn't just about deterrence. The punishment has to fit the crime. I don't see selling heroin as a death penalty worthy offense. Not to adults, at least. People die from OD's but that's not murder because the user seeks out the dealer, asks for the drugs, then makes a choice to take them.

I know they do all kinds of draconian things in Singapore and that they have low crime because of it. I recall a controversial case in the 90's where they caned an American teenager for graffiti. Screw that. That isn't the kind of society I want to live in. I wouldn't even want to go there. I'd worry about what would happen if I spit on the sidewalk without thinking.
 
woolfe9998 said:
My point being, it isn't just about deterrence. The punishment has to fit the crime. I don't see selling heroin as a death penalty worthy offense.
Click to expand...

Not to mention, the moment you make something a capital offence there's zero reason an offender wouldn't do anything in his power, including murder, to elude discovery and capture.

This works in Singapore because it's a half-utopian, half-dystopian technocratic police state with literally the strictest gun control of anywhere in the world, where the population understands that they've wholesale sacrificed any semblance of civil liberties on the altar of security. And because any crime, not just drug smuggling, is punished so disproportionately to the act, almost all crime is effectively deterred.

Transplant this to the USA, and you'd just get a whole lot of shoot outs with police, and wholesale slaughter of would-be witnesses. If the state is going to kill you anyway...
 
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Generally speaking research shows that the probability of being caught for committing a crime is a much larger deterrent than the harshness of the punishment.

The US already has horrifyingly harsh laws for drug trafficking so making them even harsher is probably pointless.
 
*Effect.

And no, not really. Like fskimospy said, there's not much evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent -- not in a healthy legal system where proper representation and appeals are available, anyway. It's better to focus on catching peddlers and, maybe, legalize and heavily regulate the drug.
 
No, of course not. They are not going to execute the rich fat cat CEOs of pharmaceutical companies.
 
I fundamentally disagree with the death penalty, and I dislike Singapore's methods of canning (sp? this one is confusing me) people in addition to jailing them, but I can see a value in canning people and moving on without jail time.

Everyone can use an asskicking now and again, but jail time can utterly destroy a person's entire life and send them or even their entire families into a downward spiral of criminality and poverty.

At this point through, Singapore is famous for its draconian drug laws. Anyone smuggling anything through there accepted the consequences long ago.
 
It will have a lot of effect.

You’ll kill more people for engaging in commerce.

Prices at all stages of import and sale will go up, enriching drug dealers and traffickers.

More fentanyl and worse will end up in the drug supply, causing more health issues.

More crimes will be committed to pay for the more expensive drugs.

And yeah, this might have some minor reduction in drug use.
 
A useful place to start:
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/five-things-about-deterrence

My opinion:
It would be more effective than no death penalty if it were reasonably likely to be enforced. But it would obviously be horribly unethical. Only very disproportionately harsh punishments have much effect on deterrence. But that isn't humane. What we need to focus on is reliability of catching crimes and attempting prosecution, not harshness of punishment or even so much charges sticking. We spend a lot of money stuffing people in jails/prisons.
 
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Well, it was nice knowing you guys but I did buy and transport across county lines...
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Edit: Oops. Audio screws up halfway through that one so here is the last part with fixed audio...
 
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Look at SE Asia as example. It's penalty by death if you're caught dealing most drugs there.

Yet. drug runners are caught all the time. Desperate people will do anything.
 
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