Drug Victims Remembrance Day Observance Ceremony – Speech by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

My Parliamentary colleagues,

Guests from overseas,

Community partners,

Representatives from the Inter-Ministry Committee (IMC) on Drug Prevention for Youths,

Home Team colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good evening to all of you.

Introduction

1. Last year, we held our first Drug Victims Remembrance Day.

2. This year, we gather again to remember the people who have been affected, victimised by drugs – those who have lost their lives, those who have lost their livelihoods, as well as family members and loved ones who have suffered due to drug abuse.

3. We will continue to do this as an annual event, so that we never forget who the real victims of drugs are.

4. Many countries have been adopting permissive drug policies, in particular for cannabis. At the international level, there has also been a concerted push for legalisation of drugs.

5. Some of those pushing this agenda are think-tanks and non-government organisations (NGOs), driven by ideology, but backed often by serious money. And some, quite a lot, are simply funded by the companies which will stand to make billions of dollars through legalisation. Doesn’t matter to them if thousands and thousands of people die. More people have died in the US through drugs in the last few years, compared with all the wars America has been involved in since the second World War. That‘s the scale of the tragedy.

6. Yesterday, people spoke about the number of tens of thousands of deaths, I think it was 400,000, over a number of years in Mexico alone. But people seek to profit from this, and they try and persuade you that there is nothing wrong with drugs.

7. One example is the Open Society Foundation (OSF) led by multi-billionaire George Soros.

8. I saw a letter written to the Editor of a scientific journal by a Mr Smyth, who works in the Addiction Service of the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Dublin, Ireland.

9. I haven’t verified the facts myself. But if you look at what the letter says, the writer, Mr Smyth, questioned the “large and distorting influence” of OSF, Mr Soros’ foundation, on the global drug policies.

10. How does OSF supports this? It supports drug legalisation, which is inconsistent with the United Nations (UN) Conventions on Narcotic Drugs.

11. OSF has provided significant funding to international organisations, civil societies, and academic groups. But many of these groups don’t declare this funding as a conflict their interest when discussing drug policy. They come out and they take positions as if it’s their positions, while they’re taking money from OSF.

12. Let me give some examples given by Mr Smyth.

13. In 2024 last year, OSF was involved in 11 side events at the meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna. This is the key UN forum for international drug policy making.

14. 49 other NGOs were involved in these events. Of these 49, 38 had received funding from OSF. Data from OSF’s website confirmed funding in 31 cases. These 31 entities received over $82 million from OSF.

15. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) supported seven of the side events that OSF was involved in.

16. That office is said to have received $100,000 a year from OSF between 2018 and 2022 and this increased to $1.52 million in 2023.

17. In 2023, the OHCHR then issued a report on drug policy urging countries to “consider developing a regulatory system for legal access for all controlled substances”, essentially legalisation. That was consistent with what the OSF wanted and contradicted what the UN wants.

18. The OSF has also funded prominent academic centres, which contribute to drug policy research including the International Drug Policy Unit at the London School of Economics, the Centre for Public Health and Human Rights at John Hopkins, the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy at the University of Essex.

19. Mr Smyth noted the conflicts of interests.

20. A high-profile example is the Lancet Commission on Drug Policy and Health. This commission was established with the explicit goal of influencing discussion on drug policy at the UN. It was published by the Lancet, a leading medical journal in the UK. The sole funder was OSF.

21. All of the five selected Commission leads had links with OSF - they were employees, members of advisory boards, or grant recipients. And of course, the Commission recommended the legalisation of drugs.

22. So really, the points raised by Mr Smyth are very troubling if they are true. It calls for us to be discerning about who is pushing the agenda for drug legalisation internationally, and whether what they are pushing for is truly in our national interest.

Singapore’s Zero-Tolerance Stance

23. Now against this backdrop of international trends, we have maintained our strict zero-tolerance stance.

24. This year we mark 60 years of independence. I would like to take a few moments to revisit some of our history with drugs, and to give some perspective on how far we have come since then.

25. The British colonial government in Singapore encouraged the opium trade during the nineteenth century. It was a roaring business and brought significant revenue through opium licences.

26. Some reports estimated that the opium trade accounted for nearly 50% of the annual revenue of the Straits Settlements. Opium farms flourished in Singapore and in Johor.

27. By the twentieth century, opium addiction was widespread, especially amongst the Chinese.

28. During the wartime years, the Japanese promoted opium smoking. It was a way of keeping the Singapore population submissive and that less capable of offering resistance to the Japanese occupation.

29. In our post-war years, and even after independence, drug abuse was rampant, destroying families and communities.

30. There were opium dens everywhere. Crying babies were given opium by their drug-abusing grandparents.

31. There were also significant new challenges. In the 1960s, the ‘hippie culture’ swept across much of the world. ‘Pot’ parties were rampant. Drug abusers were often found dead, lying on the streets.

32. Then heroin hit our shores and spread like wildfire. From 1973 to 1977, the number of heroin abusers increased by more than 700 times in just those five years.

33. Over the years, we have dealt with all these different challenges. We then amended the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA), introduced legal presumption to overcome evidential difficulties in drug cases, introduced the Death Penalty for drug trafficking, and we took a tough enforcement approach.

34. Today, the drug situation in Singapore is significantly different and this is because we had the resolve to tackle the drug problem head-on.

Current Challenges

35. Now, despite all the progress we have made, there is still significant impact in the community because of drug abuse.

36. The scale of human tragedy is immense. We are talking about lives lost, human potential squandered, families broken and inflicted with years of psychological and physical trauma, often across generations.

37. The true cost cannot be measured in economic terms alone. I will come back to the human costs. But you know, there have been attempts to quantify in economic terms, what the economic costs are.

38. Nanyang Technological University (NTU) conducted a study in 2016 and said that the cost to Singapore society of dealing with drug crimes was more than S$1.2 billion in 2015, which would be about S$1.45 billion dollars in today’s terms.

39. It is relatively small compared to most countries. Both the human tragedies and the economic cost are relatively small, but that’s because of the approach we have taken.

40. This cost included the operating costs of agencies like the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), Singapore Prison Service (SPS), the Yellow Ribbon Singapore (YRSG), as well as NGOs like the Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association (SANA).

41. In 2020, NTU followed up with another study to look into the financial impact of drug abuse on individuals. They found that drug consumption, significantly impacted on the abusers’ income and income growth even after they had quit the habit.

42. A one-time abuser loses close to about S$620,000 through direct costs – spending on drugs and income that he loses out on. Repeat abusers suffer even greater losses.

43. That’s a snapshot of trying to identify the economic cost. If you look at the human cost, drug abuse is devastating to society, to individuals and their families.

44. When an individual becomes addicted, he or she will prioritise the buying of drugs to feed their addiction, over the needs of his or her family and children.

45. Drug abuse also leaves deep emotional scars on the family. Channel News Asia had a recent documentary, a very good documentary, titled, “Inside the Women’s Prison”, which featured very stark examples, including a mother-daughter pair in the Drug Rehabilitation Centre. It shows, really, how drug abuse spans generations.

46. And then when innocent lives are lost, like Umaisyah. She was two-and-a-half years old. She died from physical abuse. The abusers were her own parents. And after she died, they then decided to do away with the evidence. So they burned her body to hide the crime.

47. And earlier this year, in January, two young persons, 16 and 18, passed away. From the preliminary findings, they are suspected to have died of drug overdose. “Ice” was found at the scene.

48. Thankfully, in Singapore, you can count these examples in the fingers of one hand every year. It’s counter-intuitive, but if you didn’t deal with the problem, I wouldn’t be able to recount one or two examples. You just have to look across to Western Europe, Latin America, and even in the United States, I think you lose count.

49. There are many other tragic cases but thankfully they remain small in number. But the statistics on drug abuse, is something we keep close track on.

50. We are finding that that we are arresting younger and younger abusers. Last year, the youngest was 13 years old. Over the last two years, more than half of the new abusers arrested were below 30 years old.

51. These should be lives full of promise and opportunity, instead of lives full of addiction and struggle.

Significance of Remembrance Day

52. So today, we mark our second Remembrance Day. And I suggested that we mark Remembrance Days, at least in Singapore.

53. What happens is, each time a drug trafficker who deals in death faces a death penalty, we have people lighting candles outside of Prison and elsewhere, and imagining what his or her life would be like. There is never a mention of the victims – each trafficker destroys the lives of tens, sometimes hundreds of victims. So we said, the activists against the death penalty light candles for a drug trafficker, who makes a cynical decision to bring drugs to Singapore and make money out of it. We light candles for the children, and innocent people, and families, who die all across the world. They are more worthy of remembrance.

54. We also recognise those who have shown remarkable courage in overcoming drug addiction.

55. Like Shaun Yeo: He was picked up at 15 and spent the next two decades in and out of prison, for drug-related crimes. His three children are with us today. They remained his greatest source of hope. Today, four years after his release, Shaun has rebuilt his life, found stability and purpose in work, and he himself has gone to help children in orphanages. These are the stories we ought to be celebrating. As a way of giving back, he is also sharing his story openly, so that others who might want to go down this path will think twice.

56. Another very inspiring example is Kim Whye Kee: He was a former gang leader who served 10 years in prison for a series of offences including drug abuse and extortion. His very remarkable transformation started in prison, where he discovered a passion for pottery. He then pursued arts at LASALLE – our prison system supports and helps that. He held his first solo public exhibition in 2018, I had the privilege of visiting it. Now, 20 years after his release, Whye Kee has become a successful artist, and he also mentors others who are struggling with drugs.

57. So to the both of you: we as a society, are proud of your commitment to give back to society. And I would like to thank you, and your families, for joining us today. And we thank all the others, who are taking the very brave steps to desist and move away. Last year, we had a Ministerial Statement in Parliament, we had ex-drug offenders turned up in the Parliament and we celebrated them. And in future years, we will find ways of incorporating your contribution to the Drugs Victims Remembrance Day.

Campaign

58. Last year, I spoke about the importance of engaging students. I am really heartened to know that young voices are featured prominently in this year’s exhibition. You are the people we are trying to help and save.

59. NAFA students have created an impactful art mural expressing their perspectives on the unseen struggles of drug abuse.

60. Their art is part of the interactive exhibitions at Junior Colleges, Polytechnics, ITE Colleges, and the autonomous Universities.

61. The winning entries from the DrugFreeSG Essay Writing Competition share very powerful reflections. I encourage everyone to look at these very thoughtful pieces done by our kids at the exhibition.

62. To all the students and teachers involved – thank you for adding your voices and your perspectives to this conversation. To our youth leaders – you have an extremely important role to play in speaking up against drug abuse.

63. This exhibition also includes audio recordings and artefacts that tell the stories of families affected by drug abuse.

64. These testimonies give a sense of the lasting emotional trauma that drug abuse inflicts upon families.

65. I thank the families for their courage in sharing their stories. And I thank the IMC agencies for supporting these programmes.

Call to Action

66. While Singapore has kept our drug situation under control, every story reminds us of why we have to press on with our anti-drug messages and efforts.

67. The fight against drugs has to transcend borders.

68. To our international guests – we share a common challenge. I hope that our Remembrance Day will inspire similar reflections on the harms of drugs in your countries. And I look forward to seeing how we can share our experiences and work together even more closely. And we will be happy to share what we do, on the remembrance side, our approach to drugs, our rehabilitation approach, our laws and frameworks.

69. I encourage everyone of you to spread the message of Remembrance Day, and pledge to stay drug-free.

70. Now, let us light a candle and observe a moment of silence to remember all the victims of drugs.

71. Thank you.