Hazing the Dragon in Singapore

Posted on November 20th, 2006 by Bieren Skidels.
Categories: Uncategorized.

[the following was published in Northwestern University Singapore and Friends Thumbtack ‘05]

Toke the wacky tobaccy, hit the pipe, smoke the stinky purple punch, roll 8 balls, do a line or throw rocks. In the words of Johnny Depp “Disco shit, pure as the driven snow.” However, when in Singapore, you best take Detrich’s warning to Nicholas Cage’s face.

“No more drugs for that man!”

Because, in Singapore, drugs are a big big deal (like you didn’t know). So before one lights up a doobie on orchard road, they better consider the following.Five weeks ago while you were mugging in prep for your last midterms, Mr Shanmugam Murugesu was hanged. Shanmugam Murugesu, a father of two, was sentenced to death for attempting to take cannabis into Singapore. There are eight more persons facing the same fate as Shanmugam Murugesu in Singapore right now. More than 400 prisoners have been hanged in Singapore since 1991. According to the UN Secretary-General’s quinquennial report on capital punishment, for the period 1994 to 1999 Singapore had a rate of 13.57 executions per one million population, representing by far the highest rate of executions in the world. This is followed by Saudi Arabia (4.65), Belarus (3.20), Sierra Leone (2.84), Kyrgyzstan (2.80), Jordan (2.12) and China (2.01). The execution figures include a significant percentage of foreign nationals. -[Amnesty International]

Today, Singapore takes a very clear strategy to combating the drug problem utilizating a “vigorous combination of punishment and rehabilitation.” Ex-users, after going through a rehabilitation center, are monitored by electronic ankle devices for the first six months, followed by two more years of “supervision” involving regular urine tests. If a person refuses testing, they will be imprisoned for 7 to 13 years. The relapse rate is down in recent years, to about 60%.

This heavy handed solution seems to work on the surface, drug usage per capita is much lower than most modernized countries and Singapore seems mostly void of the street violence associated with the drug trade.

However, it has not always been this way. In the 1800s Singapore became a lucrative spot for Chinese merchants wishing to get in on the opium trade. In fact the city government earned more than half its revenue indirectly from the opium trade. At the beginning of the 20th century opium still accounted for half of the total income of the straits settlements! Through the early 20th century opium smoking was legally licensed. It wasn’t finally until
1946 that a law was introduced to make opium smoking completely illegal. In fact much of the modern strategy to the drug war can find its origins in the 70s when overnight, heroin became the rage. The government responded by making the death penalty mandatory for anyone found trafficking more than 15g of heroin, a law which has been upheld ever since (eg Tuong Van Nguyen 2004).

Today, persons detained under the Internal Security Act and the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, as well as suspected drug users detained under the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA), are not entitled to a public trial, which is accorded in all other cases. Happening to get the following mixed up in your luggage on the way home can earn you the death penalty:

15g of heroin
30g of morphine
1.2 kilograms of opium
500g of cannabis
200g of hash
30g of cocaine

Just a few things to think about, I will leave you with some thoughts from our friends…
the animals