Executions for Drug Crimes Are Resumed in Indonesia - NYTimes.com
JAKARTA, Indonesia — This country has resumed executions for serious drug crimes after a four-year hiatus, and Indonesia’s attorney general has warned drug offenders on death row that their executions may now be accelerated.

The resumption follows a decision last year by Indonesia’s Constitutional Court that upheld the death penalty for serious drug offenses.

Two Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were the first to be executed for drug crimes after the long break. The two, Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa, were put to death on June 26.

All executions in Indonesia are by firing squad. Prisoners are taken to a field to stand in front of 12 men who each fire one shot aimed at the chest. If that barrage does not kill the prisoner, a commander stands ready to fire a point-blank shot to the head.

…Last October, the Constitutional Court ruled that a constitutional amendment upholding the right to life did not apply to capital punishment. The court added that the right to life had to be balanced against the rights of the victims of drug trafficking.

Indonesia executed the two Nigerians on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, as a message to those trafficking drugs through the country.

Indonesia is fighting an epidemic of drug abuse. Its population of 238 million includes an estimated 18 million addicts, according to the Ministry of Health.

I’d be interested to know who the Ministry of Health counts as “addicts”, because we’re talking about 7.5% of the population (probably more if we factor out children, since it’s mostly the teen and young adult population we’re talking about.)  Here in the US, where we have no death penalty for drug trafficking, government surveys show 20 million Americans used any illicit drug in the past month.  You couldn’t call them all addicts, though, considering only 9½ million used something other than marijuana. I’ll bet what Indonesia are calling addicts are mostly just users.

Even if we go with the Indonesian figure of 7.5% of their population, it’s interesting to note the US figure of past-month drug users is 8.3%, and that’s only 8.3% of the population aged 12 and over.  So even with a death penalty for drug trafficking, Indonesia has about the same rate of drug users as the United States.