Brunei is making it easier to hang drug offenders, reducing the amount of methamphetamine that traffickers need in their possession before the death penalty is imposed.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei

The new laws, which took effect last month, are the tiny oil-rich sultanate's answer to a rising drug problem among the 300,000 population, especially young people. The national narcotics board has warned that drug use threatens the country's stability.

Anyone caught trafficking or smuggling more than 50 grams (about two ounces) of methamphetamine would face the gallows, down from the old threshold of 200 grams (about eight ounces).

 Previously, trafficking or smuggling 50 grams would have been punished by up to 20 years in prison and 15 lashes by a rattan cane. Those punishments will now be imposed for 20 grams (under one ounce). Amounts of 20 grams to 50 grams have been the norm in recent court cases.

Methamphetamine use has skyrocketed in Southeast Asia in recent years. The drug is produced in vast quantities by drug armies in Myanmar that have added it as a side business to their traditional trafficking in opium and heroin.