SINGAPORE JAILS PAIR WHO USED DRUGS ABROAD

A YOUNG Singapore couple have been jailed for a year for smoking cannabis
in Australia three weeks before they returned home to Singapore.

Gavin Seow, 28, and Lynn Cheok, 22, had returned to the island republic
from Australia and then went on holiday to Malaysia with Mr Seow's parents.
Returning to Singapore, they were subjected to a random urine test; it
showed traces of the drug that they had smoked in Perth after finishing
their studies.

Muralidharai Pillai, their defence lawyer, pleaded that they were both good
students and that attitudes to cannabis use were different outside
Singapore. But Judge F. G. Remedios told them: "All Singaporeans must be
aware that consumption of drugs is dealt with very strictly here."

Singapore has some of the world's toughest drug laws. A mandatory death
sentence is imposed on anyone over 18 convicted of trafficking in more than
1/2 oz heroin, 1 oz of morphine or 17 oz of cannabis.

Of more than 300 people hanged in Singapore since 1975, more than half have
been drug traffickers.

Recently the laws have been strengthened by targeting Singapore citizens
and permanent residents who use drugs abroad. "There has been a noticeable
trend of Singaporeans consuming drugs overseas in recent years,"
information provided by the Central Narcotics Bureau says. To "plug this
loophole", Singaporean or permanent residents will be dealt with "as though
the act of consumption was committed in Singapore".

The Foreign Office for the first time has advised of the risks involved in
taking drugs in the weeks before visits to countries with harsh drug
penalties. Travellers should not be surprised, a spokesman said, if they
are arrested when traces of drugs are found in urine. It points out that
Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all have strict
anti-drug laws, as do Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Traces of
cannabis can stay in urine for four to six weeks. The Foreign Office said
yesterday that people who take drugs before entering those countries were
"reckless" and "utterly stupid".

In Britain, Customs do carry out random tests, but that is usually to check
for people who have swallowed sealed drug packages, which can often still
be detected in urine samples.