Creator: Gloria Lai, IDPC
In October 2022, Singapore reportedly executed one individual, bringing the whole variety of folks executed within the city-state between March–October 2022 to 11. Whereas the small print of the reported eleventh execution haven’t been made public, the ten individuals who have been executed earlier within the yr have been all sentenced to demise after being convicted of drug trafficking. They have been largely of an ethnic minority background or Malaysian residents.
All however one of many demise sentences was associated to heroin trafficking, with one individual executed for trafficking hashish. At a time when an rising variety of jurisdictions all over the world are revising their drug legal guidelines, akin to Thailand regulating the sale and use of hashish, executing an individual for carrying hashish highlights the intense nature of demise penalty sentences.
Singapore’s concurrent Minister for House Affairs and Minister for Legislation Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam justifies his insistence on retaining the demise penalty by arguing that if he ‘eliminated the demise penalty, the move of medicine into Singapore can be a lot greater’. However that’s tough to show.
The obtainable knowledge on the provision of illicit medicine in Singapore solely reveals the portions of medicine seized by legislation enforcement companies. Knowledge on the portions of seized medicine can not precisely painting the scale of drug markets given the clandestine nature of manufacturing and distribution.
One of the best obtainable knowledge on medicine within the area is revealed by the UN Workplace on Medicine and Crime. In its most up-to-date report on artificial medicine in East and Southeast Asia, the Workplace recorded a ten per cent enhance within the quantity of methamphetamine seized in Singapore from 2020–2021. Each single Southeast Asian nation recognized methamphetamine as their major drug of concern.
In two neighbouring international locations that don’t impose the demise penalty, Cambodia and the Philippines, the quantity of methamphetamine seized by officers elevated by 9.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively, between 2020–2021 — about the identical or lower than Singapore.
There are different components that should be studied to grasp the influence of the demise penalty on the provision of medicine. Such components embody the notice of the demise penalty as a doable sentence and the motivations of people that determined to have interaction in drug trafficking. The capability of legislation enforcement companies to intercept the provision of medicine can also be related and arguably a larger figuring out issue, within the efforts to cut back the provision of medicine. Nonetheless, imposing the demise penalty doesn’t scale back the move of medicine based mostly on the obtainable knowledge.
It isn’t evident that extra Singaporeans would die from drug-related causes if the demise penalty was eliminated. Shanmugam has argued in favour of this correlation by referring to numerous drug overdose deaths in the US and Canada, the place there isn’t a demise penalty imposed for drug-related offences.
Many of the drug overdose deaths in the US and Canada have been on account of using opioid substances containing artificial opioids, akin to fentanyl. Thus far, there isn’t a proof confirming the presence of fentanyl within the provide of opioid substances in Southeast Asia, although overdose deaths can nonetheless happen with the consumption of opioid substances not containing fentanyl.
Many international locations in Asia don’t publish knowledge on drug overdose-related deaths, making it questionable whether or not Singapore and certainly different international locations within the area are monitoring the variety of drug-related deaths internally. UN Workplace on Medicine and Crime knowledge on drug-related deaths reveals scarce knowledge reported throughout the area, and none for Singapore.
Following a demise, autopsies are usually carried out solely upon request. Requests for an post-mortem are not often made for folks whose demise is believed to be associated to their drug use. That is seemingly as a result of stigma related to drug use and to keep away from an official report of demise ensuing from a drug overdose. The latest Drug Scenario report by Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau on the drug scenario within the city-state doesn’t point out drug-related deaths.
As with the consumption of psychoactive substances akin to alcohol and tobacco, the federal government ought to undertake efficient schooling and hurt discount measures to mitigate the dangers related to overdose deaths and different well being penalties. There’s a sturdy proof base exhibiting that implementing hurt discount measures will save lives.
There is no such thing as a such proof for imposing the demise penalty on folks convicted of a drug offence.
Gloria Lai is Regional Director, Asia at Worldwide Drug Coverage Consortium.
