The West's hypocrisy and confusion over recreational drugs are back on display.

A motley crew of young Australians has been arrested in Indonesia on drugs trafficking charges. If convicted, some of them face the death penalty.

Had they been nabbed in possession of 11.25kg of heroin in Sydney or Auckland, they wouldn't have got a scrap of sympathy. If and when found guilty, they'd be denounced in the most florid terminology the bench and the headline writers guild could summon - parasites, vampires, merchants of death - and no matter how much jail time they copped, it wouldn't be enough for some people.

The parents of drug casualties would be wheeled out to reflect on this plague decimating the flower of our youth and somewhere a fire-breathing talkback host would snarl "hanging's too good for them".

But despite the blood-lust of the Bring Back the Noose brigade, we don't hang people any more and we don't want anyone else to.

Not everyone shares our enlightened views. According to Amnesty International, a delegate to the 2004 National People's Congress admitted that China, the custodian of the Olympic spirit for the next few years, executes nearly 10,000 people a year.

Indonesia retains the death penalty for various crimes, including rendering the president unfit to govern and, of course, producing and trafficking narcotics.

The Indonesians believe that executing drug criminals acts as a deterrent. Former president Megawati Sukarnoputri said last year, "Due to the great dangers of drug abuse that has threatened our younger generation, I will uphold capital punishment for drug-related crimes".

While in full agreement with the first part of this statement, the West recoils from the second. Rather than let the Indonesians get on with deterring drug smugglers their way, the Australian Government has already indicated it will pull out the diplomatic stops to prevent the death penalty being enacted.

The Indonesians' reward for doing what they believe, with good reason, the West expects them to do - crack down hard on the drugs trade - is to be abused if not demonised in the Australian media. Invidious comparisons are being drawn with Indonesia's apparent lack of zeal in the war on terror, and the racism and paranoia which always threaten to spill over when Australians fixate on their populous northern neighbour.

The Australian Federal Police are being hammered for tipping off their Indonesian counterparts rather than arresting the gang on its return to Australia, an act characterised by civil liberties groups as "exporting the death penalty". Meanwhile, in Bali, a media circus swirls around Australian beauty student Schapelle Corby, on trial after being arrested in possession of 4.1kg of marijuana.