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Nguyen, Singapore and Howard & Downer [revisited]

It is hard to believe that a week has passed since the hanging of Van Nguyen in Singapore.

This last week saw the funeral service for Van Nguyen here in Melbourne with what was reported to have been some 2000 attendees at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Much has been written and said about whether there should have been such a high profile funeral and the attendant publicity.

It will be recalled that in what many see as PM Howard and Lord Downer of Baghdad engaging in a lot of hand-wringing but little real effort made to spare the young man, that both men made mention of some 26,000 people who might have been affected had the drugs sought to be imported by Van Nguyen reached Australia.

Richard Ackland, in his excellent weekly opinion piece in today's SMH, highlights the falsity of much of Howard's and Downers actions in the whole issue, and more importantly, that the figure of some 26,000 potential "users" of the drugs which would have ben imported is plainly wrong. At best it would have been something in the order of 2000 to 2667 hits. Yet another example of the Federal Government's disinformation and inability to be truthful.

Comments

Dave said…
Socially, exaggeration is often whimsical. But when a government dramatically inflates numbers to help justify a death sentence, the integrity of both the trial and its governing body becomes questionable. In this case, the government is Singapore, the trial was for Van Tuong Nguyen, and the bloated number is 26,000.

Press from around the world quotes Abdullah Tarmugi, the Speaker of Singapore Parliament, in writing about the potential consequences of Van's actions, "almost 400 grams of pure heroin, enough for more than 26,000 doses."

But how was 26,000 doses (or "hits") derived?

It turns out that what constitutes a hit of heroin is not an easy thing to count. There are dozens of factors to consider; contact your local Needle Exchange for a comprehensive list. However, after collecting statistics from over a dozen sources (including police reports, narcotics web sites, health information, and workers from needle exchanges), the number of hits from a gram of pure heroin averages out to little more than 14.

Van Tuong Nguyen trafficked 396.2 grams of heroin into Singapore. This is approximately 5,600 doses.

The numbers 5,600 and 26,000 are obviously incongruous, as are reports that 400 grams of heroin would "ruin 26,000 lives". In fact, 400 grams of heroin would not come close to ruining even 5,600 lives. Rather, the heroin would most likely supply people already abusing it. With a little more research, we can estimate how many lives would be adversely affected by 400 grams of heroin during one year:

As many as 67, and as few as 6.

Van Tuong Nguyen would not have sent 26,000 people to their deaths from 400 grams of heroin. Nor would the lives of 26,000 people have been ruined. Far more likely is that six people would get a year's worth of hits. And for this he was executed?

Call it dreadful, call it dense, call it incomprehensible ... but do not call it justice.
December 11, 2005 4:44 pm
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