HELP SCHEMES PUT EX-ADDICTS BACK ON THEIR FEET

TOUGH laws are not the only reason why Singapore is winning the battle
against drug abuse.

Rehabilitation and preventive programmes are just as important, says the
Home Affairs Ministry (MHA), which yesterday released figures showing a
decline in the drug problem over the past decade.

Between 1993 and 1998, the number of drug abusers arrested fell steadily
from 5,857 to 4,502.

By last year,it had fallen dramatically to 1,785.

The statistics are part of the ministry's rebuttal to a blistering report
by Amnesty International on Jan 14, that attacked Singapore's execution record.

Amnesty argued that the authorities should resolve the social conditions
that give rise to drug abuse and addiction, 'rather than resorting to
executions as a solution'.

'Despite the use of the death penalty and high execution rates, drug
addiction continues to be a problem' in Singapore, it said.

Neither is true, said the ministry.

Firstly, a drug addict is not sentenced to death, but to a drug
rehabilitation centre (DRC), for treatment and counselling to help kick the
habit. Recovering addicts are sent to a halfway house, where they are
gradually re-integrated into the community.

Various agencies also help ex-addicts get jobs and instil a strong work
ethic in them.

In the last few years, Singapore has also taken preemptive action, by
designing and targeting preventive drug programmes at students and youths
who are out of school.

This holistic approach has worked, said the ministry, pointing to the
declining arrest rate. As further proof, it added, fewer addicts are going
back to the drug habit.

Of the DRC inmates released in 1994, almost eight in 10 were detained again
within two years. By 2000, the proportion had fallen to six in 10.

But the MHA also made no apologies for the tough laws.

Because Singapore is so small and so close to the Golden Triangle, the
poppy-growing region that is part of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, it is
'particularly vulnerable to the drug menace', it said.

So, the death penalty plays 'a key role in deterring organised drug
syndicates from establishing themselves in Singapore and keeps the drug
situation under control'.

Of the 138 executions in the last five years, 110 were for drug-related
offences.

Amnesty alleges that a number were sent to death row for possessing
'relatively small quantities of drugs'.

The ministry countered that the death sentence is meted out only to those
who possess more than 15g of heroin in its pure form.

This is equivalent to a slab of about 750g of street heroin, which can be
made up into more than 3,700 heroin straws, with a street value of more
than US$100,000 (S$170,390).

'Amnesty International may consider this as 'fairly small amounts of
drugs', but Singapore certainly does not,' said the ministry.