SINGAPORE – Singapore is waging a war against drugs, and thousands will suffer if the country does not put up a fight or loses the war, said Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam.
Delivering a ministerial statement in Parliament on May 8 on Singapore’s approach to drug control, he cited several drug-related crimes here that resulted in the deaths of people at the hands of their loved ones who had abused drugs.
Quoting statistics from the World Health Organisation and World Drug Report on the lives lost to drug use, Mr Shanmugam, said: “These are not just statistics, they are the lives of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters.
“That is why I use the analogy of war. I am talking about a war against those who profit off the drug trade at the expense of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.”
Mr Shanmugam, who is also Minister for Law, said he was delivering the ministerial statement as Singapore’s drug control policy has been criticised by individuals helping inmates to abuse the legal process.
In 2019, Singapore changed its policy towards drug abusers. Now, those who abuse drugs without committing other offences are sent for treatment and do not get a criminal record.
But, while Singapore tries to help abusers, it takes a tough stance against drug traffickers, said Mr Shanmugam.
He said: “We have zero tolerance for those who destroy the lives of others for money.”
In the 51-minute statement, the minister painted a grim picture of how the drug trade has affected the security and lives of citizens in countries such as the United States, Sweden and Belgium.
He said that in the past decade, there have been hundreds of shootings, fires and bombings in Antwerp, Belgium, many of which were linked to gang-related violence for a piece of the cocaine trade.
Citing examples of how relaxed drug possession laws in San Francisco and Oregon led to higher drug overdose deaths, Mr Shanmugam said such policies have a long-term impact on the next generation.
He added that the death penalty is an effective deterrent in the war against drugs.
After the death penalty was introduced for trafficking more than 1.2kg of opium in 1990, there was a 66 per cent reduction in the average net weight of opium trafficked in the four years that followed.
The minister said it is not easy for policymakers to decide to have capital punishment.
“But the evidence shows that it is necessary to protect our people, prevent the destruction of thousands of families, and prevent the loss of thousands of lives,” he said.
Mr Shanmugam criticised activists for presenting an image of an unfair criminal justice system stacked against drug traffickers.
He called out five parties – the Transformative Justice Collective, The Online Citizen Asia, Mr Andrew Loh, Ms Kirsten Han and Mr Ravi Madasamy, better known as M. Ravi.
He said they had made false statements alleging that a death row inmate was denied an interpreter during the recording of his statement.
Mr Ravi had acted for former death row inmate Gobi Avedian, 32, who was spared the gallows for drug offences in October 2020, after a five-judge Court of Appeal overturned an earlier decision by the same court.
Gobi was instead sentenced to 15 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane.
Mr Shanmugam said that while these activists portray the trafficker as a victim of unfortunate circumstances, they do not mention the harms caused to the victims of the traffickers or the number of lives wrecked by drugs.
He cited four cases in Singapore to illustrate the harms of drug abuse, including a man who stabbed his mother to death and punched his grandmother, causing her death, while under the influence of LSD, a hallucinogenic drug.
Mr Shanmugam added: “Drug abuse is not victimless, and all of these are caused by the drug traffickers whom people glorify.”
The activists also help to file unmeritorious legal applications on behalf of convicted drug traffickers, and often at the last minute, said Mr Shanmugam.
In the past few years, large groups of death row inmates have jointly filed applications to the court after all avenues of appeal and clemency have been exhausted.
To deal with this situation, the new Post-Appeal Applications in Capital Cases Act (Pacc Act) will require death row inmates to seek permission from the Court of Appeal before filing further applications to delay their executions after they have exhausted their appeals.
The law was passed by Parliament in 2022 and is expected to come into force within a few weeks, said Mr Shanmugam.
Contrary to activists’ claims about weakening support for the death penalty, he said, surveys conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) showed that support for the punishment here rose in the last two years.
In 2021, 74 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the death penalty should be used for the most serious crimes, including drug trafficking. Preliminary findings from a 2023 survey showed this rose to 77 per cent.
The 2023 survey found 69 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the mandatory death penalty is an appropriate punishment for trafficking a significant amount of drugs, up from 66 per cent in 2021.
Due to Singapore’s approach on drugs, Mr Shanmugam said, the number of drug abusers arrested here every year has halved since the 1990s.
But Singapore still faces a threat from drugs.
The number of drug abusers arrested in 2023 was up by 10 per cent to 3,101, from 2,826 in 2022, according to statistics from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) released in February.
The number of cannabis users arrested was the highest in a decade, jumping 17 per cent to 277 in 2023, from 236 in 2022. CNB director Sam Tee said then that liberal attitudes towards drugs globally have shifted public attitudes here.
Mr Shanmugam said drug traffickers still try their luck because of the profits they can earn, as the street price for drugs is much higher in Singapore than in other parts of the region.
Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh asked about new psychoactive substances (NPS) seized by the CNB and if there are specific communities consuming such drugs.
Mr Shanmugam said there has been a jump in NPS seizures, as they were previously not available but have now become easily available because they can be created fairly easily in larger quantities.
He added: “I don’t think there’s a clear correlation, but we have seen a slightly higher level of Chinese participation, as it were, the number of Chinese who take these NPS, compared with the ‘traditional drugs’, if I can so refer to them.”
Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok) asked what was being done to ensure younger generations understand and internalise Singapore’s strong anti-drug policy.
Mr Shanmugam said drugs are now pushed as “cool” to the young through the media, online and by their friends, in what he described as a “multi-faceted assault”.
He said that MHA and CNB have been trying many different ways to try and get their message across better and more clearly.
“There are all these glitzy arguments as to why ‘soft drugs’, cannabis, cause you no harm... It’s frequently glamorised, you can’t get away from it,” he said.
“How do we deal with it? You know, we don’t produce Hollywood movies. It’s very difficult to stand against this multi-faceted assault, but I think we have done a reasonably good job.”
Mr Vikram Nair (Sembawang GRC) brought up gateway substances, and asked if there are any such drugs that young people should be aware of.
Mr Shanmugam noted that some might refer to vaping as a gateway, but said that the Ministry of Health would answer as to what steps it is taking to deal with the issue.
Earlier in the Parliament session, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam said that there was a lot of misinformation being spread that vapes are harmless.
She said: “The truth is that there’s a lot of data that suggests they are gateway products to smoking as well as to drug use.”
She was responding to a question from Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC), who noted that there was a strong link between vaping and cannabis abuse.
Ms Rahayu said the Health Ministry would continue building knowledge and disseminating information on the issue.
To continue combating drugs, Singapore will mark Drug Victims Remembrance Day every third Friday of May from 2024. The first observance event will take place on May 17 at the Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza.
Said Mr Shanmugam: “We will be holding a candlelight display to remember the victims of drug abuse, not only from Singapore, but from all around the world.”
The event will be followed by roving exhibitions across different locations around Singapore from May to July.
Mr Shanmugam said: “I strongly encourage Singaporeans to visit the exhibitions, participate in these activities, to be aware of the global and local drug situation, and to show solidarity in our fight against drugs.”
