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Some years ago when I was in Singapore on business, I finished what I had come to accomplish by 4:30 that afternoon and had a night flight back to Japan. I went to a local shopping mall to kill a little time and was invited to sit down and have a cold drink by one of the local shopkeepers when he found out I was an American working in Japan.

The conversation turned to the local drug laws and it was plain he was quite proud of what Singapore had accomplished in the last generation or so. He told me that in the late 1950's and early 1960's heroin use was so prevalent they figured 10% of the population of Singapore might have been addicted. Their society felt draconian drug laws were the only way out. He proudly proclaimed "Look what it has done for us."

He told me drug addicts who wouldn't take the cure after two or three tries were exiled to one of the small islands off-shore where they had to survive on their own. Every month or so, a boat from the mainland would drop off some basic foodstuffs and take back any applications for those who felt they were cured, but most remained on the islands.

As for the drug traffickers, he told me that Singapore hanged maybe 50 or 60 per year, overwhelmingly foreigners as Singaporeans wouldn't risk it. He asked me how many people died of drug overdoses and drug related violence in a similar-sized American city. I had to admit it was a lot more than the 50 or 60. These hangings, he said, are the price we pay to keep Singapore prosperous and relatively free of crime. I'm sorry some foreigners have to learn the hard way just how serious we are because of what we went through.