Trump stated, "they're killing our kids, they're killing our families, they're killing our workers..." And then continued using examples of China and now Singapore's policy to promote a death penalty. Trump claims that a drug dealer will kill over 5000 people during the drug dealers entire drug career, with no evidence to support his claim. He did not specify on which particular drugs, but essentially over generalized all drug dealers (he did mention opium but of course there are vast amounts of other drugs on the street that are unrelated to the Opium epidemic in the United States).
This is rather troubling... Killing someone because they sold a particular object is not justified, no matter what the object is. In my history of living and experiencing life in poor urban areas, the death penalty will solve nothing and, in fact, will increase the violence in these areas. The alcohol prohibition was an utter failure which got police and innocent people killed and drastically increased violent crime and expanded organized crime syndicates. If the United States does push for the death penalty then that gives individuals all the more justification to arm themselves illegally and commit more dangerous acts.
These are rules for a totalitarian state, not a free society. The death penalty should not exist if you did not directly harm an individual. If you sell an object to someone and they consume it, it is their responsibility not yours. Other than drugs, if someone buys a hot cup of coffee and they sue you because they burned their tongue, how does that make you responsible? Likewise, if a drug is too strong how is the seller responsible if the buyer agreed to the terms? Poison is one thing, but well knowing you're going to buy something poisonous and consume it is your own responsibility.
Instead of the death penalty, we should be supporting the deregulation of drugs, and focusing our efforts on drug rehabilitation, which is far more effective than expanding an already violent drug war. If the death penalty is taken seriously and they push for this then how will they handle teen drug dealers? It's very troubling to believe that I could be killed just because I smoke marijuana.
What are your thoughts?
