DRUG dealers deserve to be heavily punished. If two members of drug syndicates dealing in shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) and ecstasy pills were caught and tried in court, they should have received equally heavy sentences. But if the West Jakarta District Court gives Hariono Agus Tjahjono three years in jail and then dishes out life imprisonment to his friend, Ricky Chandra, the question has to be asked: How can it be?

The circumstances are