Letter to Schapelle Corby

Tuesday, 31/5/05

[Apa Kabar? – How are you? in Indonesian.]

STUART HIGHWAY
PO Box 614
NIGHTCLIFF NT 0814
AUSTRALIA
ph + 6188948 2547

Dear Schapelle
Apa Kubar? I hope you are coping OK with the prison life. I sent you a postcard last Friday after hearing of your sentence on ABC radio around lunchtime. The sympathies of millions of Australians go out to you. I’m not expecting to hear back from you as I expect you’ve been getting mail by the sackful!

The tragedy that has befallen you is both ridiculous and unnecessary. You have become, like so many others, collateral damage in the US-based War On Drugs. Like most other people, I don’t believe you put the 4.1kg of marijuana in your bag and attempted to smuggle it into Indonesia. But EVEN if you did, so what? As soon as the authorities prohibit something, a black market is created, and from that flows crime: smuggling, trafficking, corruption, violence, then ‘busts’, prosecutions, prison sentences, ruined lives and misery, and many unintended victims such as your good self. If the drugs are bad then the problems created by prohibition of these same drugs are ten or a hundred times worse! And it doesn’t, and never has, stopped anyone from using drugs. The authorities would be better off selling the drugs very cheaply, or even GIVING them to the people who want them, putting aside the outdated morality of people like John Howard. That way most of the crime and other problems would be eliminated and people would be free to get on with their lives.

Heavy and shocking as your sentence is, if you’d been convicted in the US, it probably would’ve been even heavier. I’ve been writing to a woman, Vicki Rosepiler, in Connecticut, USA, who’s doing 24 years 4 months for 2.72 grams of cocaine. The cops told her that if she didn’t plead guilty to the charge they would confiscate her mum’s house and put her in jail, too, even though her mum had nothing to do with it. Vicki has been inside nearly a decade already. It’s just awful, horrible. Lest you think that’s an unusual case, think again. The US has 1.2 million people in prison for cannabis offences. I think it was in Utah that a guy got 55 years for selling a small bag of cannabis to an undercover cop. So I refuse to single out the Indonesian government for criticism because it’s not the real source of the problem. (The country’s courts and criminal justice systems are simply doing what their lords and masters, the US, . . . their bit in the/for Uncle Sam’s global War On Drugs.)

The media coverage of your case has been unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it. Last night a friend showed me a copy of the Melbourne Herald-Sun and the first 8 or 10 pages were devoted to your case! People everywhere are talking about it. I think there will be some sort of accommodation or agreement reached: transfer to a prison in Australia at the very least. People in Australia are angry. I hope that they have the sense to refrain from attacking the Indonesian authorities, as that might make things worse for you. Talk of boycotting Bali or of asking for the return of donations to the tsunami Indonesia appeal is stupid and counterproductive. We shouldn’t do anything to harm ordinary Balinese or Indonesians. It’s a poor country and most people are doing it tough enough already. Most Indonesians are kind, generous and lovely people and it would be unfair to blame them for policies of the Indonesian Government. I’ve spent time there and I have Indonesian friends here, too.

A consolation of the personal disaster that has happened to you, is that now the issue is in our faces. So much suffering has been inflicted on people by laws against drugs, and to what purpose? There are more illicit drugs around than ever. They can’t even stop people using drugs in prison, let alone anywhere else! With any luck, there’ll be some good coming out of your persecution. Who knows, governments might even try some COMMONSENSE thinking for a change.

By the way, my ex is a beautician, too. She did her course in Christchurch, NZ, and now lives in Adelaide. Just thought you’d like to know that, ha ha! We love you Schapelle! Regards Stuart