S’pore youth have relaxed attitude towards drug abuse, survey shows

SINGAPORE — Youth here have a blasé attitude towards drugs, particularly when it comes to cannabis, a survey of youth who were arrested for drug abuse has found.

And this is not something seen only among youth from dysfunctional families, but from all social backgrounds, said Second Minister for Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli.

Speaking in an interview yesterday, Mr Masagos said the youth think cannabis is neither addictive nor harmful, and that it is okay to use it occasionally. He spoke ahead of the release of a multi-agency task force’s findings on youth and drugs, which will be published on Friday.

“This is quite a new phenomenon not just because it is a shift in the attitudes but also it is affecting not just youths who come from the typical dysfunctional families ... but also youths at large,” said Mr Masagos, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Mr Masagos co-chairs the task force on youth and drugs with Minister of State for Education Sim Ann. The task force was established last year to come up with new approaches to tackle Singapore’s drug problem. Apart from surveys, focus-group discussions were also held with youth who were arrested for drug abuse.

Asked about the task force’s recommendations to address the problem, Mr Masagos said one way is to enhance preventive drug education among the youth. This will be done from the secondary schools to the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to correct misconceptions about drugs and provide the right information.

“We are not only targeting the youths themselves, we are also looking at how to enlist other stakeholders including parents, counsellors also in MINDEF as well as SPF, (SCDF) when the NS commanders can also engage the troops as they go through training,” added Mr Masagos.

The authorities are also working with IHLs on students who go overseas for internships, as it may be easier for them to get of drugs in some countries.

“They should not succumb to peer pressure or even to try, it is an offence if you (are) to consume drugs overseas… I think many youths are not aware of this and therefore we want to make sure that the IHLs, when they send our youths overseas for internships, that they are aware of this,” said Mr Masagos. Changes in legislation on the use of cannabis in the United States, he noted, has affected the attitude towards the drug here.

The US has decriminalised the use of cannabis in some states, partly to relieve the burden on prisons. Some states in the US have also legalised the use of the drug and allowed consumption and possession up to a certain amount. “In fact more than half the states in the US have either decriminalised or legalised this drug,” said Mr Masagos.

And commercial entities are taking advantage of this phenomenon. “In US now you can find cannabis-laced cookies, cannabis-laced candies,” said Mr Masagos, adding that it is also “quite easy” to get a prescription for cannabis from doctors in America.

“Because this is happening in the US, inevitably the (porousness) of the Internet allows our youths to also access the (same amount) of information, and the kind of … shift that’s shaping the youths in the US (have) inevitably come to our shores too,” said Mr Masagos.

Young people should be told of the “real issue” about cannabis. For example, the medical profession here has stated that cannabis is harmful even when used for medical purposes. “It has to be prescribed … usually done at end-stage to (act as) a painkiller,” Mr Masagos said.