Collective Effort against Drugs

We thank Mr Zhou Zijie for his letter, “Stopping Drugs From Reaching Young People” (14 April 2026).

As Mr Zhou highlighted, any youth can fall prey to drugs, regardless of family background. They may succumb to peer pressure, curiosity, online misinformation, or pro-drug narratives that normalise drug-taking behaviours. We need vigilance across society.

In Singapore, our guiding philosophy is harm prevention. We are doing everything we can to prevent drugs from taking root here. Our approach is anchored on enforcement, education and rehabilitation.

We have strict laws and rigorous enforcement. We are especially tough with drug traffickers, including meting out the death penalty for trafficking large amounts of drugs.

We also invest heavily in preventive drug education to strengthen the resilience of the community and youths to stay drug-free. The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) supports the Inter-Ministry Committee on Drug Prevention for Youths, to coordinate these efforts across Government agencies. For example, CNB works with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to equip schools with resources for classroom discussions on the harms of drugs. Parents are encouraged to reinforce anti-drug messages at home through regular conversations with their children, supported by resources made available via MOE’s Parents Gateway, seminars for parents, and the CNB website.

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Home Team (HT) have put in place measures and initiatives to ensure a drug free culture within their organisations, and adopt a zero-tolerance stance against drug abuse by their servicemen, including National Servicemen.

Preventive drug education is conducted for Full-time National Servicemen early in their service, and sustained throughout. We conduct refresher talks and regularly disseminate anti-drug messages through SAF and HT’s various platforms. 

The SAF and HT also carry out regular urine screening to detect drug abuse among servicemen. Urine tests are conducted on servicemen throughout their service, alongside spot checks at access control points within SAF and HT premises. Servicemen who are found to be abusing drugs are dealt with firmly.

In addition, commanders are trained to detect signs of drug abuse.

Safeguarding our youths requires a whole-of-society effort. By working together, we can better protect individuals, families and the wider community from the harms of drugs, and keep Singapore drug-free.