While I'm not a supporter of death penalty, and the case as presented looks like a potential tragic lack of due process, I would like to bring up a counterpoint to an underlying perspective on drugs.
There's this undercurrent narrative in the Western world that laxer and more lenient stances on drugs will lead to better social outcomes. And based on this belief, pressure on other cultures to adopt the same mindset. But as far as I can tell, this belief, and its still nascent implementation, hasn't fully panned out and it feels to me like it might not be turning out for the best. And yet leniency toward drugs appears to be trumpeted as a solved question.
Without taking a position for or against lenient drug mores, I would like to just bring up the possibility that the current Western point of view might not be universal and also might not be what is actually turning out to be best. Legalization of mild drugs is still a new phenomenon and the effect it will have on societies will take decades to take effect.
I know this is probably an extremely unpopular line of thought, particularly amongst all my friends who disagree quite strongly. But it's a question on which I have changed my mind in recent years.
There's this undercurrent narrative in the Western world that laxer and more lenient stances on drugs will lead to better social outcomes. And based on this belief, pressure on other cultures to adopt the same mindset. But as far as I can tell, this belief, and its still nascent implementation, hasn't fully panned out and it feels to me like it might not be turning out for the best. And yet leniency toward drugs appears to be trumpeted as a solved question.
Without taking a position for or against lenient drug mores, I would like to just bring up the possibility that the current Western point of view might not be universal and also might not be what is actually turning out to be best. Legalization of mild drugs is still a new phenomenon and the effect it will have on societies will take decades to take effect.
I know this is probably an extremely unpopular line of thought, particularly amongst all my friends who disagree quite strongly. But it's a question on which I have changed my mind in recent years.