The Central Narcotics Bureau in Singapore recently released their annual statistics and to say that the data is startling is an understatement. The document revealed that the number of teenage drug abusers increased in 2015 that in the past couple of years. The statistics showed that the number of arrested drug abusers under the age of 20 in 2015 increased by 51 percent and the overall number of drug abusers arrested increased by 20 percent.
According to some reports methamphetamine which is also known as "ice" or "met" is still the drug that's on top of the list - almost 77 percent of arrested drug abusers are found consuming meth. Cannabis came as the second commonly used drug and heroin came in third. Authorities are alarmed by the fact that most of the arrested individuals are under the age of 30 and they are consuming drugs that are far too dangerous.
CNB director Ng Ser Song stated that young adults in this generation are not afraid to get hooked on any type of drug. He explains that there seems to be a more tolerant attitude towards drug consumption as a whole.
"Locally, several developments are of concern. First, there are signs of increasingly tolerant attitudes towards drugs, particularly among older youths. For example, nearly 70 per cent of new drug abusers were below the age of 30. Second, among new abusers, cannabis has displaced heroin to become the second most abused drug after methamphetamine," explained Ng Ser Song.
The Central Narcotics Bureau also discovered an increase in number of abusers in all ethnic groups - two per cent increase among the Chinese, seven per cent increase among Malays and three per cent increase among Indians.
In order to halt the spread of drug addiction in today's youths, the CNB established programs that aims to educate them and potentially help them recover from addiction - Task Force on Youths and Drugs, and the Anti-Drug Abuse Campaign.