DrugFreeSG Appreciation Dinner 2024 - Speech by Assoc Prof Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs & Ministry of National Development

1. NCADA Chairman, Mr Tan Chong Huat; Acting Director of CNB, Mr Leon Chan; Members of the NCADA Council; Advocates and community partners, a very good evening to each and every one of you.

2. Welcome to the DrugFreeSG Appreciation Dinner. I am glad to be here again and to see familiar faces in the crowd. This evening, we thank all our advocates, volunteers and partners, for your continued support and dedication in keeping our fight against drug abuse the past year.

3. Looking at what is happening around the world and looking at what we are doing, it really warms many people’s hearts.

Key Initiatives Driven by CNB’s Partners, Advocates and Volunteers

4. One key event we held this year was the Drug Victims’ Remembrance Day, introduced for the first time on 17 May. Some of you were there at the observance event held at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza to show support by lighting up a candle to remember drug victims. Some of you had also attended the roving exhibitions at the shopping mall and shared the event and its significance with the people in your network and on your social media. Your efforts, no matter how small, have made a difference. More than 100,000 promises to stay drug-free was logged over three months of the campaign – this is a very strong and powerful response.

5. Community partners have also built upon their good work in community outreach events and continued to engage their respective communities on anti-drug messages with their volunteers. For example, under the Dadah Itu Haram (DIH) campaign, volunteers participate in Friday prayer engagement sessions at the mosques, and also helped distribute dates during Ramadan under the Date Your Loved Ones Today! Initiative, making use of these opportunities to spread preventive drug education messages to the Muslim community. Under the Bothaiporulai Ethirthu Nirpom (BEN) Campaign, we have partnered SINDA to spread drug-free messages to the Indian community through their outreach programmes like Project Give.

6. Our community partners have also helped us to increase the engagement of parents this year. Parents are a critical point of influence and authority in a youth’s life, and they ought to know the risks of youth drug abuse and how they can engage their children on the issue of drugs. In September, CNB, NCADA and National Youth Council (NYC) worked together under the ambit of the Youth Change Maker programme, to organise a panel dialogue discussing how parents can engage their children on the harms of drugs and share ways to engage youths to stay away from drugs.

7. Earlier in August, NCADA also collaborated with Singapore Cybersports & Online Gaming Association (SCOGA) for the first time, to organise the Campus Legends Parents Seminar. The seminar set out to inform the parents of the youth gamers about the increasing vulnerability of children in abusing drugs, and to emphasise the crucial role of parental guidance. I was part of the panellist at this seminar, and joined panellists like NCADA members Ms Elaine Lim, Dr Jimmy Lee, and Mr Firdaus Daud; as well as Ms Carol Loi from SGFamilies, and Mr Isaac Goh who is a community leader with the eX-Offenders For Good movement. It was a rich and meaningful seminar.

8. I had a good chat with parents during the seminar and they shared with me their concerns. A mother shared that she was very appreciative that we as a community are proactive in reaching out; although she said most parents would think that it won’t happen to their children, she has seen some of her friends’ children being affected by drugs so that motivated her to come and better understand the issues at hand.

9. There were also ground-up initiatives led by our partners as well, bringing others in their community together to spread anti-drug awareness. One example was the teaming up of Muneeswaran Community Services with Nee Soon Central’s Indian Activity Executive Committee to organise an outreach event in Jul 2024. This was attended by more than 150 residents and invited guests from other community partners including SANA, SINDA, Hindu Endowment Board and HEB-Ashram.

10. Another example of such an initiative was initiated by Jaylen Chua, a student from Anglo-Chinese Junior College. He started a school-wide project with fellow advocates and schoolmates, spreading awareness on the importance of staying drug-free through pop-up booths and a school-wide anti-drug poster design competition. Jaylen also worked with his tutors on a lesson plan to discuss on the drug issue with students during General Paper lessons. I am inspired by his passion – it makes a difference when it is someone you know who is telling you about the harms of drugs.

Importance of Advocacy and Community Support

11. It is encouraging to see so many of you coming onboard to support our efforts and to help amplify the drug-free message. We have made good progress in working together as a community to keep Singapore drug-free. In a survey conducted by NCADA in 2023, more than 90% of survey respondents, both youths and adults, agreed that Preventive Drug Education in schools was important to discourage youths from taking drugs. This shows the importance of upstream drug prevention efforts, and the value that partners and the community bring in ensuring that the drug-free message continue to reach our youths and the public.

12. However, we must keep pushing against the tide of drugs. The drug supply keeps growing year on year, and increasingly, because of the liberal approach that many countries are taking on drugs, media and social media have glamourised and downplayed the harmful effects of drugs. We need to continue to press on and sharpen our anti-drug efforts. Our hope is that partners, advocates and volunteers will come together as one and continue to take ownership of spreading the drug-free messages in society.

13. I have been very touched by the efforts from all our community partners and advocates. I’ve worked with some of you on the ground, including the desistors, and I am inspired by what you do. Thank you for inspiring me so that we can continue to work harder together, especially in view of the liberal attitudes across the world.

14. The united stand taken by Singapore helps us in fighting the scourge of drugs and having you do this within your networks and as one Singapore community, it means a lot to all of us. I hope we can continue this journey together as we strengthen our effort to keep Singapore drug-free.

Rebranding to DrugFreeSG Advocacy Network

15. The Anti-Drug Abuse Advocacy Network, or A3 Network, has been an important platform for CNB to garner community support and encourage active citizenry in support of the drug-free cause. It started in 2016 with only 20 volunteers. After more than seven years, the network has grown to over 400 advocates, including youths under the sub-scheme known as the Anti-Drug Advocate programme for youths.

16. To ensure that we continue to stay relevant and effective in engaging our advocates and volunteers, we have decided to rebrand the A3 Network to what you see here today, on the banner behind me - the DrugFreeSG Advocacy Network. This is aligned with our branding of initiatives under the DrugFreeSG tagline. We hope this will create a common identity among our advocates, champions, and partners, reminding us of our shared vision for a Singapore free from drugs.

17. Under the rebranded Network, the adult and youth volunteers will be managed under a single scheme, in alignment with the common identity I mentioned earlier. Volunteers can continue to support us in the ways that you are familiar with, specifically in these three key roles:

(a) Firstly, to be the voices to spread anti-drug messages within their spheres of influence;

(b) Secondly, as participants to support drug-related events; and

(c) Thirdly, as organisers to lead ground-up initiatives.

18. But I know many of you play all three parts because you feel passionate and committed to it. Sometimes you may organise ground-up initiatives with your friends and colleagues, and while you do that, you will also meet people and engage and share messages.

19. With this rebranding, volunteers can look forward to more structured opportunities to receive training and resources to help you upskill. We will keep you up to date on information and developments so that you can continue to carry out the anti-drug advocacy work. For example, there will be a revamped onboarding for new advocates to create opportunities for advocates to network and foster bonding apart from receiving information from CNB. The training programme provided for the DrugFreeSG Champions will also be extended to the volunteers under the Network. There will also be more opportunities for volunteers to attend training in the form of sharing by practitioners on areas such as engaging members of public on the topic of drug prevention and leading ground-up initiatives.

20. These are just some of the key changes and enhancements that volunteers can look forward to under the rebranded Network. You will hear more in the coming months from CNB’s volunteer manager and also via a monthly e-newsletter as we progressively roll out these new changes.

21. With this rebranded network, I am confident that we will strengthen our efforts to be more focused and it will be easier for us to relate to the cause. At the same time, we can encourage more people to be part of this network.

Conclusion

22. I look forward to seeing all of us band together, standing firm in our purpose and mission, so that we will raise a generation that is fully informed of the harms of drugs. We want our young to make wise choices, and prevent the needless loss of lives, and devastation to our loved ones and families. Every effort, big or small, can make a significant difference.

23. I sincerely thank you from my heart, and to the rest out there who are helping us in these efforts, and I wish you all a good dinner.