SM Teo Chee Hean at the Central Narcotics Bureau Workplan Seminar 2023

Minister of State, Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim,
Mr Sam Tee, Director of CNB,
Partners of CNB,
CNB and Home Team Officers,

A very good morning to all of you. It is good to see so many partners in our collective fight against drug abuse here today.

The Scourge of Drugs

Illicit drugs are a very serious threat to all our societies. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, worldwide, half a million people died from drug abuse in 2022. This is not a one-off occurrence. It happens year after year, and new records are continually set.

The United States reported a record number of 100,000 drug-related deaths in 2021; that is over 270 deaths every day in the United States. If the situation here in Singapore was like that in the US, and you scale it to our population, we would have four to five drug-related deaths every day in Singapore. That is how serious drugs can become when it is out of control. The opioid epidemic in the US is so serious that it is estimated to have shaved off one year from the life expectancy of male Americans.

The situations in the UK and Australia are also dire. Deaths from drugs have been increasing and reached record levels.

Deaths are a tragic consequence of drug abuse, but not the only one. Even when drugs have not resulted in deaths, they can ruin the physical and mental health of abusers. Drug abuse and the drug trade also contribute to crime, corruption, and violence. Drug abusers resort to crime to feed their addiction. Drug rings intent on profiting from the illicit drug trade threaten law enforcement officers and policy makers.

The Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne described drug-related violence in Belgium as reaching a state of “narco-terrorism”. It was reported that the Minister had to hide in safe houses more than once due to the threat of narco-criminals. The Belgian port city of Antwerp, which is not unlike a port city like Singapore, has become a key node of the drug superhighway from Central and South America into the European Union. Antwerp’s mayor, Bart De Wever said the drug mafia is “a bigger threat to security than terrorism”.

In the Netherlands, the chief of the police labour union said Netherlands is a “narco-state”, and that it has a parallel economy run by drug gangs. An unprecedented number of judges, police, journalists and prosecutors need personal security officers due to this threat.

18 out of 21 Latin American nations have become sources or transit countries for cocaine. Violent crime – murders, bombings and shootings – is spreading across the continent. Uruguay, which was once considered an orderly country, has become a global drug trafficking hub.

Singapore’s Drug Control Strategy

Today, Singapore has the situation under much better control than countries in most parts of the world. We have also avoided becoming a major transit point for drugs and causing problems to others. This is in spite of Singapore being a major international transport hub for people and goods, and our close proximity to the “Golden Triangle”, one of the major global drug producing areas.

The drug menace is not new to us in Singapore. Those familiar with Singapore’s history will recall that we had legalised opium dens from the colonial era. It took much effort to reverse that and get rid of them. So we understand what legalisation of drugs means. Debilitated addicts, dependent on opium, wasted their lives away in these opium dens.

It has taken much effort for Singapore to protect our people and remain relatively drug free.

In the late 1960s, drug-related crime was rampant in Singapore. A pop culture, fuelled by marijuana and LSD, had swept the world. Drug abusers in Singapore committed crimes so they could feed their addiction. Traffickers exploited this addiction and profited from it. Families were broken because of drug abuse. Abusers were found lying dead in the streets, while others suffered from overdose and severe drug reactions.

We decided decades ago to rid ourselves of this scourge. It had robbed our people - hard working, ordinary people, students with potential - of the spark of life, and condemned them to an existence of dependence and misery.

So the Government set up CNB in 1971. The Misuse of Drugs Act was enacted in 1973 to impose tougher penalties and deter drug pushers and traffickers. The Act also enabled us to send drug addicts to rehabilitation centres for treatment and rehabilitation. So from the beginning, it was not just about enforcement, but also rehabilitation and treatment.

But drug activities persisted, as drug traffickers and abusers were not sufficiently deterred by the penalties. The lucrative profits to be made from the drug market were still worth the risk of being caught and imprisoned.

In 1975, we introduced the death penalty for the most serious drug trafficking offences, to match the misery and death that drugs caused, and as a stronger deterrent to those considering trafficking. As a result, the street supply of drugs was severely curtailed.

We gradually reduced the incidence of drug abuse, as reflected in the decrease in the number of abusers arrested over time. In the 1990s, we arrested around 6,000 abusers every year. Today, it is about 3,000.

These improvements came about because we developed and implemented a comprehensive and effective drug control strategy. Our strategy involves a suite of mutually reinforcing measures. All of them are needed to work together – tough laws and enforcement, preventive drug education, effective rehabilitation and after care.

First, we have tough laws and robust enforcement. The strict enforcement and heavy penalties, including the death penalty for those who traffic significant amounts of drugs, protect Singaporeans and save many lives by deterring traffickers. Those who contemplate trafficking drugs into or through Singapore know this, and know that they may be caught, and will have to face the consequences.

There are some who campaign against our tough drug laws, especially the death penalty. I hope that they will devote at least as much time and energy into sending a very simple message – drugs are dangerous, prevent harm to yourselves and to others by staying away from drugs. This is a very simple message, and a useful and constructive complement to prevent the harm from drugs and spread the message to would-be traffickers and addicts alike. I hope that they will consider putting time and energy into this effort as well.

Do our tough drug laws work and do they have an effect? Yes, they do. A study by MHA in 2021 found that drug traffickers deliberately restricted the amount of drugs they carried, so as not to exceed the capital sentence threshold. They were willing to risk imprisonment, but not the death penalty.

Four years after the death penalty was introduced for trafficking opium in 1990, there was a 66% reduction in the average net weight of opium trafficked, as compared with the four years before the introduction.

Similarly, four years after the introduction of the death penalty for trafficking cannabis in 1990, there was a 15 to 19 percentage point reduction in the probability that traffickers would choose to traffic above the capital sentence threshold.

We continue to review and amend our laws, for example to deal with new psychoactive substances, and to better deter, detect and detain those who intentionally cause harm by trafficking in drugs.

Strict laws alone are not enough. CNB’s enforcement is swift and certain. CNB continues to improve its detection and enforcement methods to protect Singaporeans.

Last year, CNB made drug seizures with an estimated market value of $14 million and crippled 23 drug syndicates. So it is drug syndicates that we are going after, and not just drug mules as people sometimes paint. CNB has deployed a more sensitive portable drug screening kit, which is able to detect a wider variety of drugs instantaneously. At the start of this year, CNB also started the use of saliva test kits at checkpoints and roadblocks to detect drug abusers.

The law and its enforcement apply to all, regardless of background, nationality, education level or financial status.

The second measure is preventive drug education. This complements enforcement by ensuring that our people, especially our youth, understand the harm of drugs to themselves, their loved ones, and society. We have seen success and continue to make progress.

Today, we have ground-up initiatives by our youth. One example is Temasek Polytechnic’s National Youth Achievement Awards interest group. The group organised a series of drug prevention activities in October last year, with talks, quizzes, and a pledging activity, to raise awareness and increase the commitment of their school community to be drug-free.

We also have ground-up initiatives in the wider community. Hang Jebat Mosque and Al-Iman Mosque organised a cycling event to spread the “Dadah Itu Haram”, or “Drugs are Forbidden”, message to their congregants and nearby residents.

The third measure is effective rehabilitation and aftercare regimes, and I thank our many volunteers for this. Ex-abusers are placed under supervision to minimise the risk of relapse in the community. CNB officers supervising ex-abusers are trained to help them stay drug-free, and refer them to community resources when needed. This maximises the chance of ex-abusers staying drug-free and for them to build productive and meaningful lives.

In 1993, our recidivism rate for offenders admitted to the Drug Rehabilitation Centre was 73%. Today, it is 26%. This not only means positive changes to the lives of ex-abusers, but also for their families. This has been possible not just with better programmes and programming, but also the strong support from partners like those present today.

Strong Support for Singapore’s Approach

In several other countries, drugs have become so prevalent and penetrated so deeply into their societies, that their enforcement, justice, healthcare, and social support systems are struggling to cope. They have resorted to temporising strategies, as they have reached the point where they have little choice but to allow drugs to circulate and be used openly, despite the known harms to their people.

They speak of “harm reduction” as an approach – to reduce the consequential problems from pervasive drug use, such as the spread of blood-borne diseases from addicts sharing needles. These countries have chosen to take this path because of the circumstances that they have found themselves in where drugs have become so pervasive.

In Singapore, we choose the path of “harm prevention” – to prevent the harms that drugs can cause from entering and becoming pervasive in our society in the first place. Rather than try to reduce the harm after that has already happened and so much harm has already been done. So, harm prevention is our approach, and not merely harm reduction. We prevent the harm that drugs will do to our people and avoid being overwhelmed by this problem that has happened in so many other countries.

A clear majority of Singaporeans continue to support our tough drug laws, including the death penalty for serious crimes like drug trafficking. Singaporeans understand that this is one part of our comprehensive system of measures to keep Singapore, and especially our children, safe.

However, there are challenges that we need to prepare for.

Health and Lifestyle Survey (HLS) Results Relating to Drug Abuse

Between 2021 and 2022, the Institute of Mental Health, conducted a Health and Lifestyle Survey which interviewed about 6,500 randomly selected Singapore residents, between 15 and 65 years of age. The survey was conducted anonymously and included a segment on drug abuse.

The survey results affirmed our drug-control approach. The majority of respondents cited Singapore’s anti-drug policies and strategies as the main reasons for staying away from drugs.

The top three reasons cited were:
i. the legal consequences of drug abuse (cited by 74.4% of respondents);
ii. chances of being arrested (cited by 65.4%); and
iii. awareness of the adverse effects on health (also cited by 65.4%).

However, there were some worrying findings.

a. The survey estimated that 0.7% of Singaporean residents in the age range surveyed had abused drugs in the past 12 months. While this percentage looks small, but when multiplied out across the population, this translates potentially to about 18,000 residents.

b. For those who abused drugs, the mean age of onset of drug abuse was 15.9. 41.8% of abusers said they started drug abuse before the age of 18. This is a large proportion and is a very young age to start.

c. 52% of these abusers started out with cannabis. And 50% of drug abusers said they abused drugs at their own home or at a friend’s home.

We are very concerned that drug abuse starts at such a young age, and at home, where young people should have parental supervision and be safe. Given the long-term impact of drug abuse, we need to do more to address this. We have increased efforts to educate the public, especially youth, on the harms of drugs, and counter misinformation and proliferation of liberal drug views on foreign media and social media – something which our youths are particularly susceptible to. We intend to reinforce our efforts.

Conclusion

The drug menace has inflicted untold harm on many societies. In Singapore we have been able to protect ourselves and have chosen the path of harm prevention. We have strong societal consensus that drugs are harmful and that we should keep drugs out of Singapore to protect our people, especially our youth. Many foreigners who choose to work and reside in Singapore with their families, also appreciate the safe and drug-free environment in our schools and our society. They tell us that they hope their own countries could be like Singapore, safe for their children.

MHA needs the continuing support and help of the community, schools, and families. We need to respond collectively as a nation to be effective. We all have a part to play in educating our youth on the harms of drugs, correcting misinformation about drugs, and being firm anti-drug advocates within our own social circles.

I commend CNB and your partners for the good work you are doing to protect us from drugs and to work for a drug-free Singapore.

We face big challenges, but I am confident that we can overcome them, just as we brought the scourge of drugs under control in the past decades, and prevent harm to our people. Thank you very much.