Quora Answer: What Would Happen if the United States Adopted Singapore's Policy of Immediate Execution for Drug Trafficking?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What would happen if the United States adopted Singapore’s policy of immediate execution for illegal drug importation and usage?”

Singapore does not have a policy of “immediate execution for illegal drug importation and usage”.  What Singapore does have is capital punishment for drug trafficking if the amount trafficked is above the limits for Schedule A drugs in the Misuse of Drugs Act (Cap 185).  

This means, that first, it has to be a Schedule A drug, such as heroin or cocaine; and it must be trafficking, not personal use.  If it is personal use, then the person is an addict, and is sent to a drug rehabilitation centre.  If the person claims it is for personal use, and the amount seized is above the limit for a schedule A drug, then it is treated as trafficking.  For example, 15 grammes of pure heroin is sufficient to send someone to the gallows.  This means that any drugs seized is sent for testing at the Health Science Authority to determine the actual quantity of drugs.  It is possible, for example, that a kilogramme of heroin seized in a raid might be adulterated to the extent that it does not even have 15 grammes of heroin.

Assuming all that is established, and the case goes to trial, the prosecution still has to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.  There is also an appeals process.  All this means that execution by hanging is hardly immediate.  The trial process takes time.  It is only once final appeals are resolved that the convicted trafficker is executed on the very next Friday.

As for the United States, due to the historical experience of the electorate, the expansive political process involving states’ rights versus federal rights, and the complicated legislative process of enacting such a law, it is highly unlikely this will ever happen.