Written Reply to Parliamentary Questions on the Steps Taken to Raise Awareness About the Dangers and Prevalence of Common Food Products in Retail Markets Overseas that Contain Cannabis

Questions:

Ms Joan Pereira: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs regarding the decriminalisation of cannabis in Thailand, what is the Ministry’s assessment on Singapore residents who travel there and accidentally purchase items with cannabis as one of the ingredients as they are not able to read the ingredients list which are written in the Thai language.

Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs what steps are taken to raise awareness about the dangers and prevalence of common food products, such as chocolates or candies, containing cannabis which are readily available in retail markets overseas.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:

1.   Persons found to have knowingly committed drug offences will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

2.   When a person is found to have consumed drugs, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) will investigate. If the consumption was unwitting, or involuntary, usually no offence would have been committed.

3.   To educate the public, CNB works with the media to report cases where food products containing cannabis were seized by CNB from persons who brought the items in from overseas.

4.   CNB also partners with various stakeholders such as educational institutions and National Service institutions to create awareness of the harms of cannabis among students and full-time national servicemen through preventive drug education programmes such as talks, skits and exhibitions, videos and informational toolkits.

5.   Further, CNB is working towards engaging travelers, at physical touchpoints such as the checkpoints, to caution them against the purchase of such items overseas.

6.   We urge persons travelling to countries where food, beverage and other products containing controlled drugs may be sold, to be careful and check if a product contains controlled drugs. If in doubt, do not purchase or consume the product.