COMMENT BY KATHY SUNDSTROM: NO ONE likes the idea of two people being taken to a remote island to be shot for the crimes they have committed.

It's even harder when those two men are: Australian, clearly reformed, Christian and guilty of drug offences, not terrorism.

But people should be very careful when casting judgment on other people's culture, politics and religion.

So many people have been quick to criticise Indonesia and its harsh penalties for drug offenders, yet few seem to be looking at our legal system and asking the question whether it is also failing us.

I was in court on Monday. It wasn't a special day, just another Monday at the Maroochydore Magistrates Court.

The Daily law list was 17 pages long, with most pages including between 18 to 22 offences that our magistrates were going to have to rule on.

I counted at least 60 which were directly drug-related crimes. You could probably double that for offences linked to the taking of drugs, such as break-and-entering, assault and theft.

That was one day of one week in one magistrates court in one state of this country.

I have been in court to watch a convicted marijuana trafficker, a bloke probably the same age as Andrew Chan, get two months' jail for his crime.

Granted, Chan was dealing in heroin, but this guy was also guilty of having cocaine and other dangerous drugs in his possession.

Death for Chan and Sukumaran, two months for this bloke - neither judicial system in my view is serving the best interests of its people.

I don't blame the judges. Our jails are overflowing anyway and there are more serious offenders out there.

But it seems we are losing a war on home turf because we are too kind-hearted or afraid to offend someone's civil liberty.

One only has to look at the double standards we have when drugs involve one of our sporting stars to seriously question if our modern, western, civilised society is any superior to the others we are quick to condemn as "barbaric" for their policies.

The noted difference between the Bali Nine duo and the many drug dealers before the courts is not just that they are repentant, they are making a useful contribution to the jail system they now call home.

To take them to that island and kill them would be such a waste and one hopes the Indonesian Prime Minister, Joko Widodo, will see it that way.

Last night I joined in a respectful candlelight vigil for these two men and I will continue to hope and pray their lives will be spared.

But for me it is not about "mercy", which I feel we don't have the right to expect.

It's about practicality.

Let these blokes pay for their crimes by serving the community they offended, for the rest of their lives if need be.

And Australia needs to come up with a tougher sentence for drug offenders - perhaps ship them to an Indonesian jail for a few years where they could have a chance to learn from Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.