When children of drug offenders take up the habit as a 'family activity'

Experts in the war on drugs are seeing more addicts who grow up in homes where their family members also abuse substances. There is no official number on how many children of drug offenders become drug users themselves.
Experts in the war on drugs are seeing more addicts who grow up in homes where their family members also abuse substances. There is no official number on how many children of drug offenders become drug users themselves. ST PHOTO: ONG WEE KIAT
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Afiq (not his real name) grew up watching his brothers abuse drugs. When he turned 18, he started consuming drugs so that he could "belong".

For the next 30 years, try as he did, he could not kick the drug habit. Instead, his ways eventually led his only son - the third of his six children - to fall into the vicious drug trap when he was a teen.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 23, 2019, with the headline When children of drug offenders take up the habit as a 'family activity'. Subscribe