The topic I have chosen to pursue is drug addiction in Singapore, more specifically how Singapore’s criminal justice system allows for the treatment of drug users to be health based rather than criminal based. Addiction is a mental illness that is very personal to me, as it runs strongly in my family. Growing up in a home with family members who have struggled with substance abuse has stressed to me the importance of understanding this issue from a point of mental illness rather than choice. My dad has worked with and supported addicts since I was a child through AA and NA programs. Through meeting these individuals and hearing their stories with addiction, I have learnt first hand how addiction affects more than just the persons actions, but also their relationships and how they function within society.

I have been raised to be extremely aware of addiction as a mental illness, so learning of Singapore’s zero tolerance policy towards drugs has always perplexed me. I never understood how  incarceration would address the underlying problem, that addiction is a chronic and relapsing brain disease. Locking up drug abusers would remove them from Singapore society, but they may come out of prison worse than they went in. This phenomenon is the experience of many addicts that have gone through Singapore’s criminal justice system, as they have learnt inside prison where to buy drugs, from whom, the cheapest places or how to administer it.

Researching this issue further, I learnt that approximately two-thirds of the prison population in Singapore were incarcerated due to drug related offences. Even more startling was that Singapore’s recidivism rates; the percentage of local inmates detained, convicted and imprisoned again for a new offence within 2 years from their release, is at 24% in 2019. Although these statistics alarmed me, they did not surprise me as it only highlights that Singapore’s Justice system is not helping drug users recover from their addiction, but rather punish them on a criminal basis.

Singapore has made efforts to help drug offenders with their rehabilitation through committing them into the Drug Rehabilitation Centre (DRC) instead. With the intent to address addiction as a health based issue, however intention is very different from implementation. This issue is very personal to me, and understanding if the country I call home, supports or hinders those struggling with addiction from receiving help is why I have chosen this topic.