The War on Drugs > Singapore serious in war on drugs - vapes and Kpods have consequences even for tourists

 

Singapore to increase fines, threaten caning

for vape users

By Andrew Sookdeo

   

Singapore introduced new penalties for vaping, including increased fines and caning. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Singapore on Thursday introduced higher fees and the threat of caning as punishments for vaping in an effort to crack down on the use of drug-laced vapes.

The increased penalties will take effect on Sept. 1, the same day that Singapore will classify 15 etomidate -- an anaesthetic agent found in Kpods, or vapes laced with drugs -- will be reclassified as a Class C drugs.

The new penalties will increase fines for people younger than 18 caught using non-drug-laced vapes for the first time from about $233 to roughly $389, while fines for people older than 18 will increase from about $389 to approximately $545.

A second offense will carry a penalty of three months in rehab, with the threat of prosecution for failing to attend, while a third offense will result in prosecution and potential fine of up to about $1,559.

The Ministry of Health and of Home Affairs said the new penalties will include caning, fines starting at $300 for people younger than 18 and $500 older than 18, alongside longer jail terms if caught vaping and required rehabilitation.

Kpod users face the same penalties, along with the potential to be prosecuted and fined up to nearly $7,800 a two-year jail sentence or both.

Drug-laced vape suppliers will face up to 15 strokes of the cane and 20 years in jail.

Foreigners and tourists will also face the same penalties, but may also be deported from the country.

Singapore initially banned vaping in 2018, but is introducing the new penalties to combat the rising use of Kpods.

"Vapes have become a gateway for very serious substance abuse," said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung when he introduced the new laws.

Kung also said during a press conference that 80% of etomidate abusers are younger than 30.

"Being largely young and probably ignorant, we think they are different from hardcore drug abusers, and they may be more open to giving up," he said.

Other countries such as the U.K., Belgium and Australia have all made stiffer rules on vaping.

Duterte-Style Anti-Drug Program Spreads to Chechyna

‘Shoot them dead!’ Chechen leader Kadyrov teaches security services how to deal with drug abusers

Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov at the Sochi International Investment Forum 2016. © Ramil Sitdikov / Sputnik

The head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan (Rodrigo) Kadyrov, has likened the threat from drug addicts on the roads to that of terrorists, telling ministers that security forces must not hesitate to use lethal force to ensure public safety.

“To hell with those who violate order in the Chechen Republic, they should be shot dead. It doesn’t matter if it’s against the law… shoot them dead! Got it?.. that’s the law!” Kadyrov said at a meeting with ministers and religious leaders, according to a recording that quickly spread across the internet.

The Chechen leader apparently lost his temper after learning new information about the rate of traffic-related deaths caused by drug intoxication that has recently risen sharply. All efforts made by authorities to reduce the number of car accidents have been in vain so far.

Last year Chechnya introduced strict laws that enabled police to strip intoxicated drivers not only of their driving licenses, but of their cars as well. However, the measure failed to significantly change the situation.

Authorities in Chechnya also limited the sale of alcohol from 8:00am-10:00am. The initiative, however, turned out to have a downside as well. Following the restriction, the number of people using drugs in the form of pills instead of alcoholic beverages soared.

Recently, the Chechen leader said in a statement on Russian social network Vkontakte that terrorism would be fully eradicated in the republic – and that the next step of his policy would be a war on drugs.

“We have neutralized thousands of bandits [terrorists] that came here from dozens of countries. A set of measures helped us change the situation with drugs. According to various sources, Chechnya is one of the most successful regions in this regard,” Kadyrov wrote, however adding, that there's still no place for complacency.

Drug substances are not produced on the territory of the republic while pharmacies don’t sell mind-altering drugs, according to Kadyrov. However, the problem remains, as drugs are still smuggled into Chechnya from other Russian regions and from abroad.

    Chechnya, Russia

Philippine Crime War Packs Decaying Jails

Duterte style law and order - hundreds killed, thousands jailed, and he's just getting started

By AFP

Mario Dimaculangan shares a toilet with 130 other inmates in one of the Philippines' most overcrowded jails, and conditions are getting worse as police wage an unprecedented war on crime.

Security forces have killed hundreds of people and detained thousands more in just one month as they have followed the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has said the top priority at the start of his six-year term is to eliminate drugs in society.

Those detained appear doomed for lengthy stints in an underfunded and overwhelmed penal system, like in the Quezon City Jail where Dimaculangan has wallowed for 14 years while his trial over murder and robbery charges have dragged on.


Inmates sleep on the ground of a basketball court inside the Quezon City jail at night in Manila on July 19, 2016 ©Noel Celis (AFP)

"Many go crazy. They cannot think straight. It's so crowded. Just the slightest of movements and you bump into something or someone," Dimaculangan told AFP in one of the jail's packed hallways that reeked of sweat.

There are 3,800 inmates at the jail, which was built six decades ago to house 800, and they engage in a relentless contest for space.

Men take turns to sleep on the cracked cement floor of an open-air basketball court, the steps of staircases, underneath beds and hammocks made out of old blankets. Even then, bodies are packed like sardines in a can, with inmates unable to fully stretch out.

When it rains, the conditions are even worse as inmates cannot sleep on the basketball court, which is surrounded by the cells in decaying concrete buildings up to four storeys high.

The cash-strapped national government has a daily budget of just 50 pesos ($1.10) for food and five pesos (11 cents) for medicine per inmate, although with the bulk buying of supplies, Quezon City Jail detainees have a sustainable diet of soup, vegetables and meat.

Pales of water are used to flush the scarce toilets, with the stench compounded by the rotting garbage in a nearby canal.


- Unthinkable conditions -

The jail's management does what it can to make life bearable, such as running dance competitions and other rehabilitation activities.

Inmates also say there have been improvements in recent years, particularly with the food and more rehabilitation programmes.

But Raymund Narag, a criminal justice scholar at the Southern Illinois University in the United States, said such conditions were unthinkable in Western nations.

"If this happened in America, there would be a riot every day. Courts would declare these jails unfit for human habitation," Narag told AFP.

The Philippine penal system is the third most congested in the world, according to the University of London's Institute for Criminal Policy Research.

Jails nationwide have nearly five times more inmates than they were built for, according to government data.

And the situation is set to get much worse, very quickly.

Under Duterte's crime war, police have reported arresting more than 4,300 people for drug-related crimes since he took office on June 30.

Duterte has repeatedly urged his law enforcers to do more, calling on them to triple their efforts to eradicate the drug menace that he says is threatening to turn the Philippines into a narco-state.

The population of Quezon City Jail, which houses inmates in a northern district of the Philippine capital who are on trial but not yet convicted, has grown by 300 since Duterte won May elections.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre told AFP the government was preparing locations for new prisons while courts have been ordered to prioritise the expected deluge of drug cases.

But Duterte has said little about far-reaching reforms needed to fix the systemic problem of overcrowding.

"If there are no new jails, no budget increases, no additional courts and prosecutors, the system will explode. That will be a humanitarian crisis," said Narag, the scholar who speaks from harrowing personal experience.


- Justice delayed -

Narag, 41, was locked up in Quezon City Jail in 1995 as a 20-year-old after being accused of killing a student from a rival college fraternity.

It took seven years for a court to acquit him, which is about the average length of a trial in the Philippines and one of the main drivers of the overcrowding problem.

Dimaculangan is the longest-serving inmate in Quezon City Jail, after being charged with killing a politician's relative in 2001. Dimaculangan is a pseudonym, because his real name cannot be used for legal reasons.

Sounds a little like the Ol' Bailey in the 19th century.

He insists he has a "clear conscience" but cannot get a chance to prove his innocence in court, averaging just one trial hearing a year in a chaotic judicial system notorious for its lack of judges, publicly funded lawyers and court rooms.

Dimaculangan said his spirits used to rise when he was informed of a date for a court hearing, but he had been disappointed too many times with cancellations or postponements.

"Now when they say I have a hearing, I don't care anymore," he said.

With no hopes of freedom, Dimaculangan said he had turned to his Catholic faith and values.

"My purpose is to help my fellow detainees," he said.

"God did not send me here because I am a thief. There are many thieves out there but how come they are not in jail?"


Inmates are packed into a basketball court to sleep at night inside Quezon City Jail, built to house 800 but now accommodating 3,800 ©Noel Celis (AFP)


Inmates take turns to sleep on the floor of an open-air basketball court, the steps of staircases, or underneath beds ©Noel Celis (AFP)


An inmate (C-top) cooks his dinner as other detainees take a bath inside the Quezon City Jail in Manila ©Noel Celis (AFP)


The jail's management does what it can to make life bearable, such as running dance competitions and other rehabilitation activities ©Noel Celis (AFP)


Inmates participate in a group dance contest inside the Quezon City Jail ©Noel Celis (AFP)


Inmate Mario Dimaculangan (C) is the longest serving inmate at Quezon City Jail after being charged with killing a politician's relative in 2001 ©Noel Celis (AFP)