Drug menace in countries with death penalty
Various opinions on and justifications for or against the restoration of the death penalty in the Philippines have been aired or published. Notably, Catholic bishops, priests and, lately, the Psychological Association of the Philippines are against it.
There are no perfect laws, procedures and systems in the operation of government. The fallibility of the human race who authors, imposes and implements laws and guidelines can never be completely ruled out.
But the fact is, most nations with death penalty have less crimes and drug offenders. As a matter of fact, drug lords avoid these countries (e.g., Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Indonesia) as sites for their drug laboratories or factories in their areas.
On the other hand, because we have no death penalty in the Philippines, drug lords find our country an attractive location for their illegal laboratories and factories.
A man’s life is precious if he/she does not destroy the life and the future of the young and innocent or undermine our economy.
Based on records from rehabilitation centers, it can be said that most drug addicts go back to using drugs, many of them while still under rehabilitation. A former chief of the NBI Rehabilitation Center in Tagaytay City told me once that less than 5 percent of those who undergo rehabilitation get fully cured. The rest suffer relapses and return to drug abuse.
Most addicts have become deranged and can no longer be reformed. Death penalty might be the best solution to save government and their families further trouble and expense, even unnecessary threats to their lives or safety.
If God allowed capital punishments in the Bible (e.g., think of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Great Deluge), it may be safe to conclude that our government has been given the power to rid the Philippines of the drug menace through the use of the death penalty.
ERNESTO Z. MEDINA,
