Death Sentence Having Little Effect on Drug in Southeast Asia

 

A United Nations report says Asia is becoming a major center for the cocaine¹ trade.

The UN report says Colombia remains² the world’s top producer of cocaine. Yet the amount of the drug seized in Asia in 2016 was three times greater than the amount seized one year earlier.

That information comes from the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime.

The drug methamphetamine is growing in popularity in Southeast Asia because it can be made anywhere. Cocaine, however, comes from an agricultural crop, the coca plant.

Officials in countries around the Mekong River seized 65 tons of methamphetamine in tablet and crystalline form in 2017, the UN agency said in a separate report. That amount is a nearly 600 percent increase from the amount seized in 2007.

The latest findings "show that drug markets are expanding,” with cocaine and opium³ production reaching new highs, said Yury Fedotov, head of the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime.

Irony⁴ of drug policy

The apparent popularity of some drugs in Asia stands in comparison to the "hard on crime" position of many Southeast Asian governments. Many of these governments are led by a lone⁵ political party, a group of military officers or dictatorial⁶ leader.

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte is known for praising what have been called extrajudicial killings⁷ of drug crime suspects. In Vietnam, courts sentence drug traffickers to death almost as much as often as Iran and China, reports Amnesty International. The group also said Malaysia is one of the strongest supporters of the death penalty for drug offenses⁸.

These developments might seem like a mystery for some who expect stronger law enforcement to reduce the use and sale of illegal drugs. But it is a truth that stronger law enforcement often helps the drug trade, says writer Johann Hari. He notes in his book, Chasing the Scream, that when the police take action against illegal drugs, drug prices go up as buyers pay sellers more for the risk.

Criminalization removes weaker competitors and enables the big drug dealers⁹ to control the market and hold onto power, he said.

Johann Hari is part of a growing number of people who believe the death penalty does little to stop drug trafficking.

"The drug problem is a complex social issue that demands a multifaceted approach towards a lasting¹⁰ solution," Nymia Pimentel-Simbulan told VOA.

Pimentel-Simbulan is executive director of the Philippine Human Rights Information Center. "PhilRights has always maintained that capital punishment…is a cure worse than the poison," she added.

Dark web

UN officials offer other possible explanations for the growth of drugs in Southeast Asia and other areas.

The UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime says it has become easier to get onto the dark web, where illegal products, from weapons to drugs, are easy to find.

The secrecy¹¹ of cryptocurrencies has helped buyers get drugs on websites. At one point in 2017, Vietnam was among the top three countries for cryptocurrency trading. Much of that had to do with investment and other legal business activity.

While the U.S. is trying to cut opioid use among Americans, its actions could affect other areas of the world.

One cause of the U.S. opioid crisis was the change to let some opioids be marketed as non-addictive because they didn't take effect immediately, but had a slow release. That decision enabled American doctors to prescribe the painkillers¹² more widely.

In parts of Asia, the opioid of choice is tramadol. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that not only are more people abusing tramadol there. It says Asia is also the main supplier of illegal tramadol seized around the world.

As for methamphetamine, the UN agency said the ease of cooking the drug, instead of growing it, could explain why the drug is popular.

There were 86 drug laboratories discovered in East and Southeast Asia in 2006. Ten years later, the number is above 500, UN estimates say.

As with so much information, it is unclear whether the abuse and sale of controlled substances are increasing -- or if officials are just getting better at finding them.

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

tablet – n. a small, usually rounded piece of medicine

crystalline – adj. made or shaped like a crystal, a small metal or rock particle

opium – n. a strong illegal drug

penalty – n. punishment

extrajudicial – adj. not involving the legal process

multifaceted – adj. having many different parts

capital – adj. punishable by death

dark web – n. part of the World Wide Web that can only be reach by special computer software

prescribe – v. to tell someone to use a medicine or treatment

cryptocurrency – n. a money that exists only electronically

1 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

4 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

5 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

6 dictatorial   

adj. 独裁的，专断的

参考例句：

• Her father is very dictatorial.她父亲很专横。
• For years the nation had been under the heel of a dictatorial regime.多年来这个国家一直在独裁政权的铁蹄下。

7 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

8 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

9 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

10 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

11 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

12 painkillers   

n.止痛药( painkiller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some painkillers to ease the pain. 医生给了他一些止疼片以减缓疼痛。 来自辞典例句
• The primary painkillers - opiates, like OxyContin - are widely feared, misunderstood and underused. 人们对主要的镇痛药——如鸦片剂奥施康定——存在广泛的恐惧、误解，因此没有充分利用。 来自时文部分