[esperent]

I currently live in Vietnam. Yes, they have very harsh penalties. They also have the least police presence I've experienced anywhere. I feel like when I do see a cop (besides traffic cops) every so often it's quite a surprise.

Also, a friend's weed dealer was busted about a while ago. He got 8 years, not 34 years, from what I heard.

I'm not trying to paint a rosy picture here. Theres huge corruption in the government and a lot of pollution and traffic problems. But it's not the dystopia that it's often portrayed as in the west. On the contrary, it's a beautiful and easy country in which to live, as long as you're above the poverty line. But food and necessities are amazingly cheap here and only about 10% are below the national poverty line here (in the US it's around 12%).