For more than two generations, the apocryphal tourist greeting in Thailand and neighbouring countries has been "Welcome, visitors. If you have drugs, we will kill you." Websites, travel agents, airport billboards and even immigration cards have carried versions of this warning. The bottom line: Possession of illegal drugs could be punished by execution. But slowly evolving policies appear finally to be eliminating the death penalty for drug trafficking.
The welcome change is far from even across Asia. Nor is there an actual movement that is pushing the change. China and Vietnam lag far behind in the slowly changing attitude towards punishment in drug cases. At the other end of the justice scale, Cambodia and the Philippines have abolished all capital punishment in the past six years. But while many countries retain the death penalty, they are using it less against drug offenders.
A low-profile group with Thailand ties, called the International Harm Reduction Association, has documented the changes in use of the death penalty. Patrick Gallahue, an author of the study and the group's spokesman, believes the evolution of drug trafficking penalties has been "tipping the scales for abolition" of the ultimate penalty.
This seems optimistic. The group has documented massive use of the death penalty for drug offences by numerous countries. China, which classes information on executions as a state secret, is the world leader in the use of the death penalty. After the extra-judicial capture of Shan drug lord Nawkham from the Thai-Myanmar border region in April, he and three accomplices were given a swift trial and death sentences.
But change is coming even in the most committed anti-drug countries. China, by all accounts, has reduced the number of executions. Singapore, with 326 executions, has announced it will reconsider its odious mandatory death penalty, in use since 1973. Malaysia, with an increasing number of drug arrests, has announced it will introduce legislation to eliminate mandatory death sentences.
The last executions in Thailand took place more than three years ago, in August 2009. Bundit Jaroenwanit, then 45, and Jirawat Poompreuk, 52, had been placed on death row in 2001 for serial drug trafficking. Before that, Thailand had not used the death penalty since 2003. There are numerous prisoners, including foreigners, on death row, but executions have been put on hold, at least for now.
The death penalty debate is as old as civilisation, and never will be settled to everyone's satisfaction. Yet most people agree that if it is to be used at all, the ultimate penalty should be employed only in the most egregious cases that offend and endanger society. The question here is whether the atrocious acts of making, carrying or selling illicit drugs should bring this most serious penalty.
So, should Thailand take down the drug-warning signs for tourists, such as the one at the Chiang Rai border which says in three languages: "Smuggling drugs brings the death penalty"? No, at least not yet. Visitors, residents and Thai citizens all should know that the nation as a whole has no pity for drug smugglers. But executions should at least be kept on hold, while the nation debates whether to abolish the death penalty for the worst drug trafficking offences.