Tracking back the annual drug situation reports from 2002 to 2009, I have made the following tentative observations:
(a) The heroin situation has significantly deteriorated. From 2004 to 2006 when heroin only accounted for about 10% of arrests, the last 3 years has seen heroin arrests going up from 31% in 2007 to 58% last year.
(b) During the years when heroin abuse was lower, synthetic drugs were the drugs of choice. In these years, the arrests consisted largely of younger offenders, majority Chinese.
(c) Subutex abuse led to it being gazetted as a controlled drug. While CNB has been working to tackle subutex abuse, heroin abuse rose, showing clear displacement effects from subutex to heroin.
(d) In the last 3 years, Malays formed the largest ethnic group arrested. This coincided with the upsurge of heroin as the drug of choice.
(e) In the last 3 years, the age of offenders arrested was skewed towards the older offenders aged 40 and above. These years overlapped with the release of long term imprisonment cases for repeat drug abusers.
Next, for inhalant abuse, the CNB reports of 2008 and 2009 reveal more than 600 arrests. This is much higher than the previous peak of 423 in 1996, though we do have a larger population. Of great concern is that youth below 20 years old accounted for more than 70% of the arrests. While Chinese still accounted for the largest group of inhalant abusers arrested, the number of Malays arrested has gone up.
I would like to ask:
1. Is the drug and inhalant abuse situation affecting the Malay community more severely now than 5 years ago?
2. What is the socio-economic profile of those arrested for heroin abuse? Are they employed? Do they have criminal records? Do they live with their families?
3. How many repeat abusers had been re-arrested after serving LT?
4. Has the subutex episode (legalizing, then criminalizing) worsened the drug situation overall?
5. Regarding inhalant abuse, what is the socio-economic profile of youths arrested? I noted that CNB had literature targeted at parents. How many of these youths have parents who can be engaged?
(Note: this speech was delivered in Parliament on 4 Mar 2010.)
