The long war on drugs is taking its toll elsewhere, it seems, with some countries pushing for a less hardline approach.

What the new approach, euphemistically named "harm reduction", embodies in reality is that the war is already half lost. It assumes that since a world free of drugs is plausibly impossible, policies should be tailored to minimise the harm associated with their use. The approach includes the provision of clean needles for drug abusers and supervised injection sites.

An associated development is the relaxation of sanctions on certain drugs.

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Review Needed Only If There Is Evidence That a Different Model Will Work Better, He Says at UN

Singapore will not soften its drug policies, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam has said at a United Nations meeting, pushing back against calls for a shift in approach to the global war on drugs.

Mr Shanmugam did not mince words in his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, as he issued a strong rebuttal to countries pushing for a less hardline approach.

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Singapore has blasted widespread calls to make the worldwide fight against illicit drugs less punitive, using a major meeting at the UN to argue that a "soft approach" would cause a flood of narcotics to the island state.

"We believe that drugs will destroy our society," said Singapore Home Affairs Minister Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam.

"With 200 million people travelling through our borders every year, and given Singaporeans' purchasing power, a soft approach will mean our country will be washed over with drugs."

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Singapore's uncompromising stance against drugs is the reason it has stayed relatively drug-free, with arrested drug abusers comprising less than 0.1 per cent of the country's population.

Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Lee said this on Monday at a meeting of international delegates, at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna, Austria.

The event is a preparatory meeting for the upcoming UN General Assembly Special Session on the world's drug problem next month, when members will set goals for global drug control in the next decade.

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Some countries are legalising the use of certain pernicious drugs, like cannabis, but Singapore cannot afford to contemplate that prospect. Not after having struggled with drug abuse since its founding. Indeed, it was a distribution centre for opium during colonial times.

By the time its British rulers awoke to the need for anti-drug laws, addiction had worked its way through society, leading to various forms of experimentation, even among schoolchildren. That prompted the setting up of the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in 1971. Over four decades later, the agency is still waging war against the scourge.

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Asean countries must continue to take a hard stance against drugs, even as societies in Europe, South America and the United States take a more liberal approach, Second Minister for Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs Masagos Zulkifli said yesterday .

"They have begun decriminalising or even legalising drug consumption and have framed the fight against drugs as a 'failed war'," he told more than 100 delegates at the opening of the 36th Asean Senior Officials' Meeting on Drug Matters.

While these countries may have their reasons for doing so, such as to increase tax revenue or reduce prison overcrowding, he asked for the region to "stand together to say that this approach is not for us".

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IN SINGAPORE, the National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) marked World Drug Day on June 26 by reminding our children of the dangers of drugs. Alongside our anti-drug laws, enforcement officers and rehabilitative agencies, NCADA aims to build strong social resistance against drug abuse.

Like other anti-drug policymakers and community leaders across the globe, I am alarmed at the recent momentum of the pro-drug lobby.

Singapore's zero tolerance against drugs has worked well so far. But for a small, cosmopolitan and open country like Singapore, this is being eroded. We will have to join with like-minded partners to resist the pro-drug lobby for the sake of our children's future.

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BANGKOK - THAILAND'S premier vowed on Thursday to step up an anti-narcotics campaign, and defended ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra against accusations that his drugs war was mired in extra-judicial killings.

Mr Somchai Wongsawat said he was launching a 90 day campaign aimed at reducing drug use and trafficking in an extension of a crackdown initially started by his brother-in-law

Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006. 'In the next 90 days the government will reduce the number of drug users and will intercept drugs from entering Thailand, but there will be no extra-judicial killings', Mr Somchai told justice and police officials.

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