BY
LEE ZHI YING

Published on

Aug 22, 2020

A nationwide survey commissioned by the National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) in 2017 found that one in five youths held the view that cannabis — also known as marijuana or weed — should be legal in Singapore. This reflects the rising trend of youths with more liberal attitudes toward drugs.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam noted that this spike is a growing concern during a drug enforcement workplan seminar at the Home Team Academy on May 24, 2019. As such, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) intend to reach out to youths to support the government’s drug policies.

Cautioning against the softening stance towards drugs, the CNB has roped in youths as Anti-Drug Advocates (ADAs) to spread anti-drug messages and generate support within their social circles. 

Javier Ng, 18, a second-year Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College Central student, has been an ADA with CNB since July 2018.

While Javier did not dabble with drugs himself, he was surrounded by friends who indulged in the highs of drugs. “During my secondary school days, I was quite rebellious and often hung out with the wrong company. I had friends who offered me [drugs] but fortunately, I turned them down,” Javier recalled.

His passion for fighting drug abuse stemmed from witnessing the toll of drug abuse on his relatives. He saw how his aunt’s drug consumption habits upended her life and affected her loved ones. 

“My aunt was particularly violent towards her family, asking for money to purchase drugs. Due to her drug addiction, she couldn’t look after her children who were very young back then,” Javier said. 

Seeing the extent of the damage drugs can impose on one’s life, Javier was determined to be a catalyst for change.

Since volunteering with CNB as an ADA, Javier has spearheaded various projects to promote anti-drug awareness targeted at youths. He took it upon himself to lead a self-initiated anti-drug public awareness project titled #YourLifeIsInYourHands.

Javier (far right) giving a briefing to his team of volunteers before distributing the hand sanitisers. Image from the Institute of Technical Education Instagram page.

On Mar 30, 2019, Javier and his team distributed customised hand sanitisers to the public at Orchard Road.

Each hand sanitiser carried the message “Your Life is in Your Hands”. Image from the Institute of Technical Education Instagram page.

Explaining that the hand sanitisers symbolised cleanliness, Javier shared that the project aimed to reach out to youths and boost their awareness of the harm from drugs. 

Despite CNB’s efforts to tackle the scourge of drugs, Javier shared that many youths still hold the belief that drugs are not really harmful or addictive. 

“Misconceptions about drugs can lead them to be curious and could cause them to try drugs, thinking that they will not get addicted,” he said.

He added that the media fuels youths’ misperceptions about drugs. “Nowadays, most of the youths are on social media which largely exposes them to false information about drugs such as cannabis,” Javier explained.

To counter misinformation on drug abuse among youths, the CNB has been ramping up their efforts for partnerships with schools in recent years. 

Spacebar Digital, a student agency from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Diploma in Mass Communication course, launched #YouUseYouLoseSG, a social media marketing campaign supported by CNB as part of their final-year project. 

“The campaign name #YouUseYouLoseSG exercises double-meaning — one being paralleled to our creative direction; using the idea of games to convey our key messages while the other conveys how one should not consume drugs or risk losing out on many opportunities in life,” said Sonia Tan, 19, account director of Spacebar Digital.

The two-month-long campaign from Jul 6 to Aug 31 aims to dispel the belief that taking drugs is part of living life to the fullest. 

“We want to highlight the full potential of life when one leads a drug-free lifestyle by shifting the mindset from ‘trying drugs at least once will let me have a taste of life’ to one that believes that a drug-free life is much more fulfilling,” the final-year Mass Communication student said.

Sonia conceded that the challenge to convey anti-drug messages in Singapore is increasing, especially among the youths. 

“To ensure maximum relatability to youths, we created our anti-drug messages through a light-hearted manner through the use of a retro-gaming theme,” Sonia added.

Being fully digital, the campaign released a gamut of content which seeded anti-drug messages on its social media pages, namely Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. 

The campaign’s main activation, titled ‘IPledgeIWin’, allowed youths to show solidarity by pledging to stay drug-free on the team’s microsite (youuseyoulose.sg).

IPledgeIWin allows youths to show their support for a drug-free lifestyle by pledging to stay drug-free. Photo courtesy of YouUseYouLoseSG.

The activation attracted 1,511 pledges in just five weeks.

As youths like storytelling, the team developed a story-based series titled ‘Does Nat Know’. The series follows the story of fictional characters Nat and Jerome and sheds light on the influence of drugs. 

Tapping on another form of storytelling through an Instagram video series titled ‘IFoughtILearnt’, the team interviewed ex drug-abusers Mr Ramli Abdullah, 46, and Mr Matthew Poh, 49, who gave heartfelt sharings on their negative experiences with drugs.

Underscoring the importance of maintaining a drug-free Singapore, the two-part series featuring two ex drug-abusers seeks to offer youths various perspectives on the dangers of drug abuse.

Mr Ramli Abdullah shared his experiences with drugs, his journey to recovery and integrating back into society after incarceration through an edited Zoom interview. The interview was uploaded on @youuseyoulose.sg Instagram page on Jul 11, 2020. Photo courtesy of YouUseYouLoseSG.

To shift youths’ mindsets positively in an interactive manner, the team curated the ‘Don’t Trip’ Instagram filter game where players have to collect hearts while avoiding drugs.

Media personality Fauzi Aziz from TheSmartLocal had a go at the ‘Don’t Trip’ Instagram filter. Photo courtesy of YouUseYouLoseSG.

The constant efforts taken by CNB to team up with youths has paid off as more young minds are compelled to champion the anti-drug cause as well. 

“Some of my friends told me that they found it meaningful to advocate for the anti-drug cause and would like to be involved in planning for future initiatives. I started with a team of five and it has now grown to a team of 30 students,” Javier said. 

“For one simple reason, they [want to] do their part for the community and anchor a cause that is not commonly talked about.”

A special thanks to @youuseyoulose.sg for sponsoring the Grab Vouchers Giveaway that took place from Aug 1, 2020 to Aug 8, 2020!