Is Selling Drugs That Kill People Like Murder?

The New York Times recently carried a story about Indonesia executing eight drug dealers. Some of those put to death were from other countries, which brought down “deep consternation” on Indonesia from the president of Brazil because one was Brazilian, as well as charges of being “cruel and unnecessary” by the prime minister of Australia because two were his citizens.
No one likes to see another person lose his life, but, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, in the U.S. alone, 41,000 die annually due to drug overdoses. That is more than in traffic (34,000), gun deaths (32,000), and falling (28,000).
After starting this column, I was chatting with a friend about this; I called it a scourge on society, and he said that is exactly what it is. He added, those selling illegal drugs know that those very drugs are going to kill people.
Our nation has spent decades and untold billions of dollars trying to eradicate the drug scourge, but we haven’t even dented the problem. Per the federal Bureau of Prisons’ latest data, 49 percent of the prison population is there because of all manner of drug offenses.
According to CNN, four decades after Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971 we have spent $1 trillion.
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The illegal selling of drugs which kill people
deserves the same punishment as for murder.
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Our current laws are ineffective and fail to provide remedies for crimes which annually take the lives of so many, impact the lives of countless others, and render many of our inner cities nearly unlivable. We throws up our hands and say, “There is nothing we can do.” How many more loved ones must we lose before we take effective action? The wrong people are dying. The victims are dying in droves, while the criminals, at best, are sentenced to a stint in jail, just to return to the streets to kill again.
How many decades more, and how many billions more do we have to spend before we conclude that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is insanity?
Our bleeding hearts are bleeding for the wrong people. We avoid being “cruel” to the criminals, all the while accepting the deaths of so many. Indonesia is right to thumb its nose at Brazil, Australia and the rest of the bleeding-heart world. As to my friend’s sentiment that this crime deserves the same punishment as for murder – I share that view.
From the Bible
Sleep a little. Doze a little. Fold your hands and twiddle your thumbs. Suddenly, everything is gone, as though it had been taken by an armed robber. Proverbs 6: 10-11 (CEV)