@julian – Where have you been living?

If it weren’t for the mules, hard drugs are not around, so she’s guilty.

And why all of a sudden when convenient, we get the ‘poor mother’ thing? Would we say the same if it was a father? Of course not.

If she’s was prepared to smuggle heroin (not sweets) she must pay the consequences, mother or not.

If we do not stock prisons with drug-related convictions, then what are we supposed to stock them with?

Drug importation is a criminal offence of a most despicable and heinous nature, amoral individuals thriving on the misery of others. It serves as a catalyst for further crime (addicts to fund their addiction) and destroys the very fabric of society.

Let us spare a thought to the young man, who in a drug-driven depression, jumped to his death just a few weeks ago… or the young woman left to die of an overdose and dumped in the countryside. All this spiral of pain and misery, beggars belief.

Tersely put – drug addicts should not be in jail, but drug importers should bloody well be. If the prison population has reached saturation point, then spare the former, not the latter.

I find no joy in seeing this young woman rot being bars, or her young children deprived of a mother. However, I find it her crime too ghastly to garner any sympathy from my end – she is also grossly unsuitable to be a parent. One may only hope that her children are raised in a stable and healthy environment, in the care and dedication of responsible adults. Anything but, would be another tragic waste.

Ms Castillo is suffering the consequences of her actions.

She tried to make some easy money, but her plan went haywire.

Her children will ‘suffer’ because their mother was irresponsible.

In prison you rarely meet someone who admits his/her guilt.

Children don’t do drugs; adults do.

Can’t we have a plea bargain system where the defendant trades information for a lighter sentence? I mean a courier’s an absolute gold mine of information.

I think that we are not combating the drug problem, we are simply combating supply without eliminating demand.

I very much agree with Mr. George Soros and his view on how to tackle drug problems.

In a nutshell it goes like this. Make drugs legal and let the government be the supplier.

In this way you are granting a secure supply of drugs that have the necessary standards and not mixed with chemicals that may be more dangerous then the drug itself.

Also if the drug is supplied by the government prices will go down because there won’t be the need for a special premium on the price for the danger in importing and trafficking it. The legal age should be over 21 so that one is mature enough to make a wise decision.

If the drug is legalized there wont be the need for the police to have so many unit on drug trafficking.

All drug suppliers will be eliminated cause no one will buy from them due to higher prices and lack of quality-they can buy it cheaper from someone else.

This will make it possible to eliminate access to the drugs to the young people and those who are legal able to get it will do it at a better price and higher quality.

George Soros continues by saying that with the current system only a handful gain which are the drug lords and the many have to pay-the ordinary people by paying taxes to finance the police and the rehabilitation centers.

Taking a bribe fades into insignificance when compared to importing a kilo of cocaine which can fry hundreds of brains of our own children, especially for monetary gain.

The two sentences cannot be compared to each other.