Newton's Law for Drug Traffickers

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

 - Issac Newton

The recent execution of the 2 ringleaders of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling gang in Indonesia triggered an international relations sub-crisis that has seen Australia (where the ringleaders hold citizenship) mounting pressure upon Indonesia to retract the death sentence of the two men. Of course, Indonesia refused to budge and this has led to the recall of the Australian Consulate from Indonesia.

Events that lead to the execution on 29th April also triggered many discussion that touches on the ethics behind death sentence or taking the life of one that has been convicted for serious crimes.

Many parties condemned the practice of death sentence and labelled it as an inhumane form of punishment. This being seen from a human rights' perspective and how it is hard to justify the act of deciding and taking another person's life knowingly as a punishment for their actions.

When viewed from the angle of human rights, it is a hard pill to swallow to fathom the experience of being the person, no doubt a stranger in a judge or a panel of strangers in the form of jury, to eventually decide and put name to paper to decree a person as being unfit to live another moment in this world and to end their life prematurely. While a judge may have been trained in his/her profession to be able to be impartial and only lean on the evidence at hand, but for certain country or states where a panel of jury from the common people to pass such sentence, one can only wonder if they can also be indifferent and impartial or would they be struck by some form of post traumatic stress.....

But court room decisions aside, the writer is more keen to discuss on the subject of KNOWING and DELIBERATE action of drug trafficking and distribution.

The use and ab-normal use (abuse) of drugs has been a long plaguing problem in society and has since been deemed to be illicit and dangerous. Yet the hedonism that these substance provide never stops a flow of users from trying to experience the other side and to escape the stress of worldly world. It also doesn't help that it has become so easily accessible that it becomes an "excessible" disease that has found its way to parasite itself into society.

Drugs provide so much more than a hedonistic experience when someone is using it. The lure of easy income by trafficking and distribution is also another cause of its prolonged existence that can tempt the hearts of non-users to go into the business (without being a user in some cases).

A simple search on google which yielded this website "Havocscope" showed the varying prices of heroin sold per gram (in USD) in different countries. The differing forces of supply, demand, legislation, ease of access, ease of smuggling, and more causes the price of heroin itself to be so unregulated that it may differ up to 650 times the price between the cheapest source and the most expensive profit yield (1 gram of heroin is sold in Brunei for US$1330, while it is US$2 in Kenya).

The economics and increasing ease of logistics via budget airlines and frequent routes provide a platform for "traders" to decide which areas can be used as a good smuggling hub or transit point to move the "products" from a low cost to high yield country. Other factors that may compound the decision include security laxity at the chosen airports, direct flights, high traffic of passengers to reduce the possibility of detection, and also how corruptible are the enforcement officers in the chosen places.

With the average street price (not traffickers wholesale price) of US$98  in Indonesia versus up to US$500 in Australia, a good 5 time yield for a 2 1/2 hour flight. Not a bad deal from the point of smugglers' view......

But that aside....

Drug trafficking or "trading", is like any other tradable commodities. If a person decides to import and export any product or commodity (illicit drugs included), the ONUS is on the person to know what are the local and international law that is bounded with such a trade. It doesn't matter if it is the trading of cars, rubber, sugar, oil...... every inbound and outbound country has its legislation that controls the trade and the supplier and logistics expert are bounded by the trade laws of both ports.

Herein lies the same rules and boundaries that are set with illicit drug trading. Countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia impose a harsh stand against drug trafficking and it has been written in law that the mandatory death sentence or life imprisonment can be imposed upon conviction. While countries such as Australia take a differing stand and the maximum conviction can be up to 25 years imprisonment and/or a fine of A$100,000. (Taken from http://crg.aic.gov.au/reports/1314/35-1112-FinalReport.pdf)

So there you have it. Cheap supplies from a harsh punishment country, high selling price in a country which has very humane laws. Lets put the maths together:

Selling price (Australia)     US$ 500.00
Purchase price (Indonesia) US$ 100.00
-----------------------------------------------
Profit                                   US$ 400.00 PER GRAM!!!

Bali Nine were caught with 8.3kg of heroin or 8300 grams, so the total possible profit was

8300 X US$ 400 = US$3.32 million for that particular ONE TRIP transaction.

If it was a communist group then each person gets a fair share of US$ 368,888.

If one was caught in Indonesia.....then one is screwed. If one was caught in Australia, a pay off of A$100,000 or a quiet sit in for 25 years would have been quite a simple trade off for such a business which doesn't require years of study or a particular trade skill apart from smuggling technique.

With such inducements, the writer does not believe that Bali Nine will ever be the last group of "traders" and even the death sentence will not deter the next group from venturing into such a lucrative business.

So is the death sentence justifiable?

While one can argue that all these people did were the trading of "commodities", but illicit drug use has such a cascading effect upon society. It is never just the simple act of trading from supplier to middlemen to the end user. It is the cascade after the end user that causes the most damage.

The addiction to the abnormal use of such drugs causes strong dependence that the users and layers of society will feel the effect. The cascade may be as illustrated but not necessarily in the proper order:

1. User feels happy
2. User needs more supply to feel happy in a stressful world that user cannot handle
3. User feels withdrawn when supply not available
4. User's work gets affected and productivity may decrease
5. User's dependence require more supply to feel the same happiness
6. User may encourage other people surrounding him to find same happiness
7. Fluctuating prices may cause use to not be able to afford regular product
8. User may resort to other means of getting money to finance habit, OR
9. User may opt for cheaper and less pure product
10. User will start to withdraw from society as the alternate happy world seems more fun,
11. User will neglect responsibility towards family or dependents,
12. User may occasionally but in increasing frequency OD (Over Dose)
13. Healthcare workers will work very hard to save OD User's life
14. Business neighbourhood of product supply becomes a hound for other Users
15. General safety of society begins to be compromised
16. User may sink into cycle of being a useless piece of rock from frequently being "stoned"
17. Dependents (family) or friends will have to start taking role to care for User
18. Lives and family are destroyed
19. Tax payers are burdened from funding going into drug rehab program and incarceration cost (prison)

And the list goes on......

So while Indonesia may have executed TWO out of nine drug traffickers. The said nine has caused a cascade of events that will destroy and cause a slow painful death of many many more on the other spectrum of business. Drug traffickers causes death to layers of society which they don't see, won't care to know, and won't be claiming responsibility.

While it is not the writer's stand to agree or condemn the death sentence imposed in certain countries, but law is law and if caught within the jurisdiction of such "draconian" law then one has to abide by it.

"Drug traffickers causes death to layers of society which they don't see, won't care to know, and won't be claiming responsibility.

But on a separate note, while human rights' activist wishes the world to see their point of view in condemning the death of drug traffickers, perhaps it is prudent that the human rights of victims of drugs smuggling, traffickers, pedlars, and users also be considered as to what kind of action or equal reaction should be conferred to the actions of the drug traders.