We can't put a dollar value on human life, the two concepts are apples and snorkels. That said, human life has inherent value, and that value is greater than what they might do to their bodies or what contrived rules we construct against what trade is illicit. But at what point does that illicit trade endanger the lives of non-participants, that's the real problem, the rub that's conveniently omitted from arguments against punishment for drug offenses. If every bale of marijuana, every bundle of cocaine, every package of meth, comes at the cost of someone's suffering, worse, deaths, then every dollar one spends into illicit trade contributes to that suffering and death. Further, consumers of illicit substances cause suffering to those around them.
Drugs aren't produced in a cultural vacuum. Every participant adversely affects non-participants, to the extent of, sometimes, death. But if one runs about killing people, particularly without trial, they become that instrument of death which is just as bad as those in organized crime who start the chain. So, Duterte isn't some "good guy", because the good guy, realizing the problem, and in his effort to reduce suffering, would put forth the extra effort to be sure he is not in the same position as the murderers and those who cause suffering.
Duterte is a murderer. He has admitted it, he has in the past killed people without trial. But then, so do we, when we send cruise missiles at some factory, or inadvertently some school or hospital, we pay for that, we contribute to that, we share that shame. We can try to improve our methods, we can try to be more precise in our self defense, but I fear innocent people will always be caught in the middle. Is that the fault of those who respond or those who perpetrate the problem? It probably falls in the laps of those who perpetrate the problem, I think. At least we'd like to think that way.
There's no real justice on Earth, in the end. This is all just what we make it. Belief in God places a higher order on judgement and justice, but here, between humans on Earth, there's no real finality in justice, only what contrived value we place in justice. So should we be stunned to inactivity because nothing we do is just, because all are ultimately unrighteous? No. That's not the answer either. The answer, tragically, is that we're all doing precisely what we should be doing, be it lawful or unlawful, good or bad. That seems, however, to legitimize murder, and murder is against not only our laws but God's laws.
We're certainly in a pickle, aren't we. To point to transgressions of another is to make less of our own transgressions. We need order to survive. All order we imagine between each other is constructed. Free will becomes the right to make bad decisions.
