News (Media Awareness Project) - Singapore: Wire: Fewer drug addicts but more ecstasy in Singapore |
| Title: | Singapore: Wire: Fewer drug addicts but more ecstasy in Singapore |
| Published On: | 1997-04-05 |
| Source: | Reuters april 5,1997 |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-08 20:36:05 |
Fewer drug addicts but more ecstasy in Singapore
SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuter) The number of drug addicts in Singapore has
dropped since hitting an alltime high in 1994, but Ecstasy has become
increasingly popular among young people, a government official said on
Saturday.
The number of drug addicts dropped to 5,740 in 1996 from 6,170 in 1994
thanks to vigorous law enforcement and effective treatment programmes,
Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng told Singapore's 1997 national
seminar on drug abuse.
Over the same period, the average daily population in Singapore's Drug
Rehabilitation Centres (DRCs) slipped to 6,990 from 8,700 and the relapse
rate fell to 73 percent from 81 percent, Wong said.
``Although these are encouraging, (ethnic) Malay and Indian drug addicts
in the DRCs are still overrepresented,'' he said.
Ethnic Malay and Indian drug addicts accounted for 52 percent and 16
percent respectively of the total DRC admissions in 1996.
But ethnic Chinese, accounting for 77 percent of Singapore's population,
are not spared the drug abuse problem.
After Ecstasy first surfaced in Singapore in 1995, it quickly became
popular among young people, and official data showed that 98 percent of the
661 arrested for Ecstacy abuse in 1996 were Chinese, Wong said.
Singapore recorded the first death from Ecstasy in September 1996 when
Chinese actress Tay Teow Li died from an overdose of the drug, the Straits
Times newspaper reported on Saturday.
``The emergence of such psychotropic drugs emphasises the need for all
agencies involved in the antidrug fight to be alert to new trends,'' Wong
said.
``We can not afford to let up on this,'' he said.
Under Singapore's tough antidrug laws, anyone over 18 years of age found
guilty of possessing more than 15 grams (half an ounce) of heroin, 30 grams
(an ounce) of morphine or 500 grams (18 ounces) of cannabis faces a mandatory
death sentence.
More than 280 people have been hanged in Singapore for various offences
over the past 20 years. More than half of those hanged were convicted of drug
trafficking.
SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuter) The number of drug addicts in Singapore has
dropped since hitting an alltime high in 1994, but Ecstasy has become
increasingly popular among young people, a government official said on
Saturday.
The number of drug addicts dropped to 5,740 in 1996 from 6,170 in 1994
thanks to vigorous law enforcement and effective treatment programmes,
Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng told Singapore's 1997 national
seminar on drug abuse.
Over the same period, the average daily population in Singapore's Drug
Rehabilitation Centres (DRCs) slipped to 6,990 from 8,700 and the relapse
rate fell to 73 percent from 81 percent, Wong said.
``Although these are encouraging, (ethnic) Malay and Indian drug addicts
in the DRCs are still overrepresented,'' he said.
Ethnic Malay and Indian drug addicts accounted for 52 percent and 16
percent respectively of the total DRC admissions in 1996.
But ethnic Chinese, accounting for 77 percent of Singapore's population,
are not spared the drug abuse problem.
After Ecstasy first surfaced in Singapore in 1995, it quickly became
popular among young people, and official data showed that 98 percent of the
661 arrested for Ecstacy abuse in 1996 were Chinese, Wong said.
Singapore recorded the first death from Ecstasy in September 1996 when
Chinese actress Tay Teow Li died from an overdose of the drug, the Straits
Times newspaper reported on Saturday.
``The emergence of such psychotropic drugs emphasises the need for all
agencies involved in the antidrug fight to be alert to new trends,'' Wong
said.
``We can not afford to let up on this,'' he said.
Under Singapore's tough antidrug laws, anyone over 18 years of age found
guilty of possessing more than 15 grams (half an ounce) of heroin, 30 grams
(an ounce) of morphine or 500 grams (18 ounces) of cannabis faces a mandatory
death sentence.
More than 280 people have been hanged in Singapore for various offences
over the past 20 years. More than half of those hanged were convicted of drug
trafficking.
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