In order to fully engage with this local issue in Singapore, I felt that I first needed a more in depth understanding about the issue itself. I already had a few preconceived ideas and had done a bit of research, yet I felt that everything I could find online was only covering the surface of this issue. Possibly due to Singapore’s lack of public information on taboo topics such as this, or because I wasn’t looking in the right places. I decided that my first engagement needed to be a conversation with someone very knowledgeable on the topic.
I was able to conduct an interview with Andrew Da Roza on March 5th. Andrew is a family friend of mine, and is also a qualified addiction psychotherapist who works at Promises Healthcare clinic in Novena. He is also on the board of the Singapore Anti-Narcotics association and the Chairman We Care community services, an addiction treatment centre in Singapore.
The conversations we had were very informative. He provided me with information about the general drug situation in Singapore, the changing demographic of drug users, the new types of drugs being used in Singapore, the process addicts who get caught go through and the ways in which Singapore combats drug use. All of this information was extremely beneficial to my understanding as he was able to give me information that Singapore does not make available to the general public. Yet he was also able to provide me with the government pages to look at to find the information or statistics that are available to the public.
Most importantly, Andrew brought to my attention newly changed laws regarding addiction. He told me that Singapore now allows addicts who have been caught with drugs more than the previously allowed 3 times limit, to continue to keep returning to the Drug Rehabilitation Centre instead of entering long term prison. This is with the intent to better acknowledge that addiction is a mental health issue, and to help in supporting addicts into recovery instead of locking them up.
Learning of this was very surprising to me. I had gone into this project assuming that Singapore has no sympathy for addicts and that they do not recognise the mental health aspect of addiction. I was very worried that this information would completely undermine my entire research, as the answer to my question would be as simple as yes, Singapore does acknowledge addiction as a mental health issue. I realised later that I have time to refine my question, and that there is still a lot of value in this topic.
