SINGAPORE — With an increasing number of new drug abusers below the age of 30 in Singapore, students will begin learning about the dangers of drugs through more subjects in school, announced Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam on Thursday (Feb 29).

While anti-drug content is already taught in character and citizenship education (CCE) and science lessons, he said it will be extended to other subjects. This includes General Paper, which was recently made compulsory for students in junior colleges and Millennia Institute.

Starting this year, Singapore will also declare an annual day to remember the victims of the "lucrative" drug trade, including abusers and their loved ones.

Mr Shanmugam was laying out the Home Affairs Ministry’s spending plans for 2024 following a debate in parliament on the Budget.

Among the topics he spoke about were drug abuse among young people — especially in terms of cannabis — and scams, which account for the majority of crimes in Singapore.

The extension of anti-drug lessons in schools is among three initiatives to be rolled out by an inter-ministry committee focusing on drug prevention among youths.

The committee, which is chaired by Mr Shanmugam, was set up last year after a survey of more than 6,000 Singapore residents by the Institute of Mental Health showed that the mean age that people started consuming drugs is 15.9 years old.

The majority of the respondents who said they had taken drugs also cited cannabis as the first illicit drug they had consumed.

According to statistics from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) released on Feb 14, the number of new drug abusers arrested who were under 30 increased for the first time since 2019, rising by 20 per cent in a year.

Among these youths were five 14-year-olds — the youngest abusers to be nabbed.

On Wednesday, Mr Shanmugam noted that all secondary schools have completed at least one preventive drug education engagement session in the last two years.

At the primary school level, 42,000 students from 116 schools participated in the anti-drug ambassador activity last year. This is an annual event targeted at upper primary students, comprising an activity booklet with anti-drug messages and an anti-drug montage competition.

Anti-drug content was first incorporated into the CCE curriculum for Secondary 1 and Secondary 3 students in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

During CCE classes, teachers discuss contemporary issues — including drug abuse — with students, according to a CNB news release in 2022.

Students are taught to recognise impulsive and addictive behaviours that harm one’s mental and physical well-being, along with strategies for self-control and managing negative peer influences.

DRUG VICTIMS REMEMBRANCE DAY

Another initiative by the inter-ministry committee is the designation of a Drug Victims Remembrance Day, starting in 2024. It will fall on every third Friday of May.

The government, schools and institutes of higher learning will organise various activities then, with more details to be given in due course.

Mr Shanmugam told parliament: “Activism usually focuses on drug traffickers and the penalties they face, but there are thousands of others whom we should think about.

“These are the victims of the drug traffickers and the lucrative drug trade: The abusers who suffer, their families, their loved ones. They are forgotten in activism, but we must remember them and we must remember the suffering that they have gone through, and the harm that drugs have done to them and their families.”

Mr Shanmugam also revealed that the government will enhance preventive drug education efforts for full-time national servicemen, and better equip National Service commanders to identify and support drug abusers as well as those at risk.

“This will sustain the drug-free message beyond schools,” he added without giving further details on these measures.

“BLATANT UNTRUTHS” THAT CANNABIS IS HARMLESS

Mr Shanmugam reiterated to the House that Singapore will maintain its harsh position on cannabis, also known as marijuana or weed. It is a Class A controlled drug in Singapore.

More than 60 per cent of new cannabis abusers arrested last year were under the age of 30. The total number of cannabis abusers arrests reached a 10-year high then, and it was the third most commonly consumed drug overall.

"There is a slightly more permissive attitude amongst our younger people towards drugs," said Mr Shanmugam.

"They are sometimes influenced by what they read and see online, the lifestyle promoted by permissive cultures and societies, and the falsehoods that are peddled."

He noted that arguments for cannabis “are often driven by parties with commercial interests”.

“They say that cannabis is a harmless ‘soft’ drug. They even suggest it can benefit those who consume them. These are all untruths, blatant untruths, much like what tobacco companies used to claim – that smoking tobacco, smoking cigarettes was harmless,” he added.

"But the scientific evidence is that cannabis abuse causes harm to the abuser's health. Studies show quite clearly that cannabis can cause irreversible brain damage, brain shrinkage, and serious mental and psychiatric illnesses."

Mr Shanmugam also cited a case in Singapore where a man who was suffering from cannabis-induced psychotic disorder slashed someone with a chopper. He was sentenced to jail and caning in January.

“We will see many more such cases if we go soft on cannabis,” Mr Shanmugam said.

Elsewhere in the region, Mr Shanmugam raised the example of Thailand, which decriminalised the recreational use of cannabis in June 2022. Reuters reported on Thursday that the Thai government will ban recreational use by the end of 2024 but continue allowing its use for medicinal purposes.

“So we really have to be very careful about this,” Mr Shanmugam said, adding that he will give a ministerial statement in parliament later this year on the global drug situation and Singapore's approach.

HAIR TESTING TO BE DEFAULT DETECTION METHOD

Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim then spoke about how support will be improved for drug abusers undergoing rehabilitation.

He revealed that CNB is planning to “generally replace” urine testing with hair testing as the default drug detection method for ex-abusers who are under CNB supervision. 

These former abusers are placed under supervision when they have completed their stints at the Drug Rehabilitation Centre, as well as their community-based programmes under the Singapore Prison Service’s supervision.

CNB will monitor them for a maximum of five years through regular urine or hair tests.

Associate Professor Faishal said that replacing urine tests with hair tests will cut down the frequency of ex-abusers reporting for drug testing.

“Previously, supervisees had to report to CNB for urine testing frequently, as often as twice a week. As hair retains evidence of drug consumption longer than urine, with similar testing reliability, hair testing will allow supervisees to report only once every quarter,” he added.

“This will reduce disruption to supervisees’ lives and the stigma associated with reporting. CNB is piloting this and will study the results before full implementation.”

Separately, Assoc Prof Faishal said that the Home Team Science and Technology Agency is developing novel testing capabilities so that CNB can more quickly tackle new psychoactive substances.

New laws were passed a year ago to more effectively outlaw such psychoactive substances, which produce the same or similar effects as controlled drugs. CNA