Risks of relaxing attitudes towards drugs

Liberal notions of drug consumption among the young are a worrying development both in themselves and because this demographic could help form normative attitudes towards drug use in a generation. Consequently, it is right for the authorities to be concerned that 60 per cent of new abusers nabbed were aged 30 and under. A survey conducted in 2020 by the National Council Against Drug Abuse showed that young people's support for Singapore's zero-tolerance approach towards drugs was 82.5 per cent, compared with 88.3 per cent for those above the age of 30. This gap suggests a perceptual shift in attitudes towards drugs, which have long been considered a social scourge, not a harmless lifestyle choice. Compounding the problem today is that drugs are available easily, alternative attitudes to Singapore's zero-tolerance stance are being propagated, there is a move towards transacting on digital platforms, and lifestyles are being shaped increasingly by media sources and celebrities who hold liberal views on drugs.

Singapore must continue to preserve its anti-drug policy in the light of such circumstances, many of which lie outside its administrative control. Part of the solution lies in creating greater awareness of what is at stake in even the experimental use of drugs. Whether its goal is a vicarious sense of liberation from daily cares or escapism from emotional trauma, the abuse of drugs is at best a delusional denial of reality and, at worst, an invitation to a downward spiral of addictive dependence that destroys individuals and families. Those who abuse substances may suffer both short-term and long-term consequences. The Health Promotion Board notes that harmful effects related to drug and inhalant abuse include permanent damage to internal organs, the disruption of regular body functions, and even death. Addicts who cannot hold on to jobs become an economic burden to their families, often straining relations to breaking point. Children suffer the worst in families where one or both parents get addicted. The social impact of all this is substantial.