SINGAPORE – Fewer drug addicts have been arrested final yr, however the authorities are involved that 60 per cent of recent abusers nabbed have been aged 30 and beneath, a gaggle that they are saying holds liberal drug views.
If nothing is finished to deal with this and different challenges, there’s a actual danger of younger individuals changing into the following technology of drug abusers, Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim has warned.
“It is worrying that young people are adopting more liberal attitudes towards drugs,” he mentioned, citing a survey performed in 2020 by the National Council Against Drug Abuse.
The survey confirmed younger individuals’s help for Singapore’s zero-tolerance method in the direction of medicine was 82.5 per cent, in contrast with 88.3 per cent for these above the age of 30.
“We need to do more to reach out to our youth to prevent them from falling prey to drugs, before they form the next generation of drug abusers,” Associate Professor Faishal mentioned in response to queries from The Sunday Times.
Spelling out the challenges, he mentioned medicine at the moment are simply accessible, options to the zero-tolerance stance are being championed, there’s a shift in the direction of digital platforms for transactions, and life are more and more being formed by media sources and celebrities with liberal drug views.
Methamphetamine, or Ice, is essentially the most generally abused drug right here, particularly among the many younger.
The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), in releasing its annual statistics final month, mentioned of the two,724 abusers arrested final yr, 58 per cent have been discovered to have abused methamphetamine. The drug’s reputation is even greater amongst new abusers, with 76 per cent of the 937 arrested final yr abusing it.
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Prof Faishal mentioned: “The global production and trafficking of methamphetamine have increased to alarming levels, and the market for new psychoactive substances continues to evolve. There is also a push in some countries for alternative drug control policies that go against our zero-tolerance stance, for example, drug legalisation, particularly cannabis.”
Cannabis is among the many prime three most abused medicine right here and is seen by some younger individuals as a mushy drug. According to the CNB, the quantity seized final yr greater than doubled to 105kg from 43kg the yr earlier than.
A latest survey by public opinion firm YouGov, finished in collaboration with ST, confirmed that about one in 4 younger individuals aged 18 to 24 felt that hashish was not dangerous. When it got here to methamphetamine, just one per cent felt the drug was not dangerous. Perceptions have been related when it got here to heroin, with solely 3 per cent in that age group considering it was not dangerous.
But hashish’ efficiency has virtually quadrupled, mentioned Prof Faishal, citing final yr’s World Drug Report.
“Yet the percentage of adolescents who perceive cannabis as harmful has dropped by as much as 40 per cent. This is despite the evidence linking regular use to health problems, particularly in young people, and the correlation between potency and harm,” he added.
As for brand new psychoactive substances, which mimic the consequences of different managed medicine, CNB figures confirmed there have been 3,150 tablets, 245 bottles, 9 stamps and 6.32kg of NPS seized final yr – in contrast with 305 tablets, 33 bottles and 6.2kg seized in 2020.
Law enforcement businesses world wide see these substances as a problem, partly due to the variety of variants that may be produced by modifying the chemical construction of current substances to evade detection.
