The world has joined Australians in the outcry over the recent 20-year sentence handed down to Schapelle Corby, a 27-year-old Aussie woman arrested after Indonesian airport officials found 9 pounds of marijuana in her bag. Since Corby’s arrest in October 2004, Australian investigations have confirmed reports of a drug-smuggling operation at one airport and Corby’s defense presents this as explanation as to why the drugs were found in her bag. Yet Corby’s lawyers were unable to introduce this and other evidence in the Indonesian court where she was tried—information that many think would have absolved her of a guilty verdict as a victim of trafficking gone awry. Indonesian prosecution pushed for the death penalty according to the Southeast Asian country’s strict drug laws, but the three-judge panel instead gave a then-hopeful Corby 20 years in prison.

Irrespective of her innocence or guilt, many have questioned Corby’s stringent term that places her in the same prison as a convicted terrorist serving only two years for his crime of murdering 202 people in a bombing. The Alliance and other organizations are outraged that someone would be imprisoned for 20 years for transporting marijuana, which hundreds of millions of people consume with little or no ill effects, is used for medicinal purposes for people suffering from life-threatening ailments, and is practically legal in some countries.

What happened to Schapelle Corby is a tragedy, and it’s been heartening to see the Australian and international community's mobilization around reforming draconian drug laws, but this case is not unique. Indonesia is not much different from other countries in which harsh, inhumane sentences are handed down for nonviolent drug offenses. An extreme example is China, where once a year a public execution of people convicted of drug offenses takes place marking the UN’s International Anti-Drug Day. And right here in the U.S., where half of all drug arrests are for marijuana, there are between 50,000 and 100,000 people behind bars at this moment for marijuana related offenses. As a specific example, in Alabama, people can spend 15 years in prison for a third marijuana conviction.

The  statistics are outrageous and Corby is not alone in her disproportionate punishment. But the international community's focus on her case serves to draw attention to the need for reform in drug policy. As the world watches her unjust condemnation unfold from afar, let her story and the unheard stories of hundreds of thousands of other people affected by the drug war incite people to action.  

Teri Weefur is Deputy Web Coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance