SINGAPORE – Drug abuse is not victimless, with even abusers themselves suffering, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Friday (May 17).

He was speaking at the inaugural Drug Victims Remembrance Day observance ceremony, held at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza.

Mr Shanmugam said drug abusers are themselves victims of drug trafficking, with their physical and mental health suffering as a result of addiction. 

Their families and loved ones also suffer, often silently and invisibly, as they bear the burden of caring for the abuser, and at times for the young children and dependents who are neglected, said Mr Shanmugam.

“They also shoulder the emotional, the financial, and the physical fallout, as a result of the addiction of a member of the family,” he said.

In addition, a toll is exacted on the community at large, said Mr Shanmugam.

“The rest of the community... could be the target of crimes because people need to commit crimes in order to feed their habit. They could be the target of violence that drug abusers often exhibit when they are under the influence of drugs,” he said.

Mr Shanmugam said society will also have to bear the higher healthcare costs that come with having to treat drug abusers and their addiction.

Mr Shanmugam said Friday’s event aims to show the harms caused by drugs and bring it to the fore of society’s consciousness.

He also praised the efforts of those who have overcome drug abuse, and the struggles they faced to beat their addiction.

In his speech, Mr Shanmugam also addressed the global and regional drug situation, and acknowledged the increasing liberal attitudes of youths towards drugs.

IMMERSIVE EXHIBITION

Drug Victims Remembrance Day will be observed on the third Friday of May each year.

Attendees on Friday also placed light-emitting diode (LED) candles on a wall during the ceremony, symbolising the deaths attributed to drug abuse globally – the figure stood at 600,000 in 2019, according to the World Health Organization.

The candles also recognise the indirect victims of drug abuse, and remind those who are grieving that they are not alone.

The event featured an immersive exhibition, providing a first-hand experience of how drug abuse devastates not just the abuser but their families and communities.

Among the highlights was a life-sized Housing Board flat set up to show how drugs corrupt the sanctuary of one’s home environment.

There was also a sensorial drug panel, allowing visitors to learn how to identify various drugs and to better combat evolving concealment tactics. There were also packages of real cannabis on-site for visitors to smell.

A “True Drug Cases: Where Violence Meets Death” exhibit told stories of lives lost due to the actions of drug abusers, letting visitors toggle through the accounts on interactive screens.

Among them was the 2006 case of two-year-old Nonoi, who was dunked in a pail of water by her stepfather. He was addicted to cannabis. She eventually died from the incident, and was also found with injuries suggesting she had been sexually assaulted.

Over the next eight weeks, a smaller-scale version of the exhibition will rotate among eight different locations across the country.

ADDRESSING ALLEGATIONS

On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also responded to allegations by civil activist Teo Soh Lung about Mr Shanmugam’s May 8 ministerial statement on Singapore drug control policy.

In a Facebook post on May 12, Ms Teo said Singapore’s drug laws and policies were ineffective, and that Mr Shanmugam had deliberately singled out a group of activists and accused them of misleading the public.

MHA said the drug problem cannot be permanently “solved”, as Ms Teo seemed to suggest.

“There will be people who will abuse drugs. What we can do is to try and reduce the number, and save as many lives as we can,” it said.

“If we go soft on drugs, the consequences will likely be very bad, with a lot more suffering and deaths.”

The ministry said the ministerial statement had laid out the deteriorating global drug situation and its resulting harms.

Countries with soft drug control policies have seen a rise in overdose rates and brutal drug-related crime and violence, it noted.

MHA said the statement had also set out factually what transpired in some court cases, in which numerous "unmeritorious" applications were filed to try to prevent the sentence from being carried out, aided by anti-death penalty activists.

In one case, the family involved in the matter gave the courts the email of an activist who was helping them, an episode that Mr Shanmugam referred to in his ministerial statement.

MHA added that Mr Shanmugam stands by what he had said in parliament and that he waives parliamentary immunity for the contents of his ministerial statement.

"(Ms Teo) implies that in some unspecified way, the making of the statement in parliament, with parliamentary immunity, was wrong," said MHA.

"If Ms Teo or anyone else feels that the statement’s contents are actionable – they can take action". CNA