Cannabis awareness website shut down

SINGAPORE — A website advocating the legalisation and benefits of cannabis and other “soft drugs” has been shut down after the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) found it to be “objectionable”, although its Facebook page remains.

In a statement issued yesterday, the CNB said the Singapore Cannabis Awareness website contained material that “promotes or tends to promote the use of a prohibited substance” and “undermines Singapore’s efforts in drug preventive education and erodes our society’s resilience against drug abuse”.

The Media Development Authority had directed the site owners to take down the website by today.

Its Internet Code of Practice defines prohibited material as that which is “objectionable on the grounds of public interest, public morality, public order, public security, national harmony or is otherwise prohibited by applicable Singapore laws”.

According to the Singapore Cannabis Awareness Facebook page, which has been live since June 2012, the movement aims to raise awareness of the productive uses of cannabis in Singapore, educate the public on responsible drug use and advocate for “a recalibration of drug policy that adopts legalisation as a main approach in regulating drugs”.

Some of its posts were signed with the names Mike and Yap Shiwen.

Explaining why the website was deemed objectional, the CNB said cannabis is one of the many “gateway drugs” that can draw first-timers and young users into using even more dangerous drugs, resulting in lifelong addiction.

Referring to the movement’s claims about the purported benefits of medical cannabis, it said there have not been sufficient properly conducted and validated clinical trials to show that the purported benefits of the drug outweigh its risks.

“If anyone has such validated evidence, and wants to advocate for its medical use, they should submit the scientific evidence to the appropriate health authorities, who are in the best position to make a proper medical and scientific assessment, instead of promoting the use of a prohibited substance to the public,” the bureau said.

Cannabis — also known as marijuana — has been legalised in several jurisdictions such as Uruguay. The state of Colorado in the United States also recently legalised its sale and use.

This trend was highlighted by CNB Director Ng Ser Song as he flagged cannabis abuse as a concern in the bureau’s annual drug situation report released on Feb 7. Cannabis seizures rose about 5 per cent last year to 15.54kg in Singapore.

On their Facebook page, the Singapore Cannabis Awareness founders stressed that they were not promoting the recreational use of drugs, adding that “censorship has done more to make us famous and boost our publicity then any other action to date”.