Committee of Supply 2024 debate, Day 2: K Shanmugam on Drug Victims Remembrance Day
Every third Friday of May will be designated as Drug Victims Remembrance Day. The Government, schools and Institutes of Higher Learning will organise activities on this day. Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, who announced this in Parliament on Thursday (Feb 29), said activism usually focuses on drug traffickers and the penalties they face, but there are thousands of others who are also the victims of drug traffickers and have been forgotten in activism. He stressed the need to remember the suffering that they had gone through and the harm that drugs had done to them and their families. This is one way to combat the rise in the number of new drug abusers. Mr Shanmugam told the House that Singapore’s drug situation remains generally under control, but in 2023 there was an increase of 18 per cent in the number of new drug abusers arrested. More than half of them were under the age of 30. The Government will work to get young people to think critically about drugs, such as getting schools to cover this in their school curricula. Commanders of full-time National Servicemen will be equipped to identify and support drug abusers.
Every third Friday of May will be designated as Drug Victims Remembrance Day. The Government, schools and Institutes of Higher Learning will organise activities on this day. Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, who announced this in Parliament on Thursday (Feb 29), said activism usually focuses on drug traffickers and the penalties they face, but there are thousands of others who are also the victims of drug traffickers and have been forgotten in activism. He stressed the need to remember the suffering that they had gone through and the harm that drugs had done to them and their families. This is one way to combat the rise in the number of new drug abusers. Mr Shanmugam told the House that Singapore’s drug situation remains generally under control, but in 2023 there was an increase of 18 per cent in the number of new drug abusers arrested. More than half of them were under the age of 30. The Government will work to get young people to think critically about drugs, such as getting schools to cover this in their school curricula. Commanders of full-time National Servicemen will be equipped to identify and support drug abusers.
Popular Shows
