BUMPER YEAR: Heroin seizures have increased, but the CNB says this is not due to a rise in demand for the drug, but to recently released traffickers trying to return to the trade. -- ST FILE PHOTO

He wanted to try to complete his course quickly, before the supply ran out.

'I was already down to about 4mg a day. I forced myself to go down to 3mg, 2mg and 1mg very quickly,' he said.

He managed to stay clean for a few weeks but the cravings for Subutex set in again.

'That's when I realised I wasn't completely free,' he said over the phone from the halfway house he had voluntarily checked himself into.

But when he tried to get more supplies, he discovered that Subutex prices had more than quadrupled. John then returned to his old habit - heroin.

But John's case is not reflective of the drug situation in Singapore, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

In the first five months of this year, the CNB arrested 241 heroin users - of which 120 had used Subutex before.

CNB deputy director S. Vijakumar told The Straits Times that these 120 former Subutex abusers represented just 2.4 per cent of the estimated 5,000 people who were known to have used Subutex.

'The numbers don't square up if you talk about a significant switch (back to heroin),' he said.

One measure of a drug's attractiveness to users, the CNB deputy director said, is its price.

If Subutex abusers regarded heroin as a perfect substitute, he pointed out, many more than 120 abusers would have been caught - especially since Subutex prices skyrocketed to as much as $180 a pill after the clampdown.

In contrast, the price of heroin had remained at $50 for a 0.2g straw.

Even though it has been a bumper year for heroin seizures - more than 6kg of the drug has already been seized so far this year, higher than the total for the whole of last year - it is not because of an increase in demand for the drug, said Mr Vijakumar.

A significant part of the supply had come from several convicted traffickers who, after serving their lengthy jail terms, had tried to return to the trade.

Investigations showed that they had attempted to 're-ignite connections' in the mistaken hope that heroin was still in popular demand, he said.

Many of these syndicates were busted before the traffickers had a chance to offload the drugs onto the retail market, he added.

While the 241 arrested in five months was more than the 116 total last year, it was not a resurgence in heroin abuse, said the CNB.

Most - in fact nine in 10 of them - were repeat offenders who had been caught using the drug before.

It was not a case where new users were abusing the drug.

Instead, the abusers were 'a hardcore, remnant group' who had relapsed.

Taking them out of circulation means they will be prevented from using the drug or influencing others for a long time.

Evidence from the halfway houses also supported what Mr Vijakumar was saying.

They told The Straits Times that they had not seen significant numbers of former Subutex users switching to heroin.

New heroin users are hardly heard of.

And there is help available for addicts out there who want to kick the habit, they emphasised.

Mr Ranjit Singh, operations manager of The Helping Hand, said: 'There are many who are managing their recovery, but there could also be many out there who are struggling.'

According to the Institute of Mental Health, 70 people who had problems coping with the lack of Subutex approached it after the Subutex Voluntary Rehabilitation Programme ended, and have received help for their withdrawal symptoms.

joolin@sph.com.sg