SHOW OF HANDS TO BACK ANTI-DRUG PUSH

Two-Month Campaign Aims To Collect Over 100,000 Palm Prints On Banners From
Youths As a Pledge That They Will Not Take Drugs

MORE than 6,000 volunteers from the People's Association (PA) Youth
Movement and the National Police Cadet Corps are fanning out to at least
100 schools islandwide to collect students' palm prints.

They want the youngsters to put their prints on banners as a pledge that
they will not take drugs.

The effort is part of a two-month campaign to raise awareness of the
dangers of drugs. The organisers, the PA Youth Movement and the National
Council Against Drug Abuse, are hoping to collect more than 100,000 prints
during that period.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign yesterday, Acting Education Minister
Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that getting the anti-drug message to youths is
important.

'How do we make sure our young have the strength to say no? We all know
that prevention is better than cure, and that preventive education has to
start young,' he said.

A two-pronged approach is needed to achieve this: first, by building up an
immunity in children against drug abuse by showing love and giving time and
care to those more likely to take drugs; and second, by continuing to
'build a consensus of zero drug tolerance'.

Positive peer influence plays a crucial role, said Mr Tharman, who hopes
that friends and classmates will help dissuade those who are susceptible
from taking drugs and persuade those who are already doing so, to stop.

He pointed out that while there was a sharp 47 per cent drop in the total
number of drug abusers arrested last year from the 3,393 nabbed in 2002,
more than half of the new abusers arrested last year were between 20 and 29
years old.

And about 22 per cent were below 20 years old.

There has also been a change in the type of drugs taken, with synthetic
drugs such as Ecstasy and ketamine growing in popularity and replacing
heroin as the primary source of illegal substances.

Last year, 72 per cent of the new abusers arrested took synthetic drugs.

Phase Two of the anti-drug campaign will involve a walk and mass run in
September, where banners with the students' palm prints will be displayed.