Drugs And Drug Abuse

This quote by famous poet Edgar Allen Poe, who himself was suspected to have died due to, among other reasons, drug abuse, fits in well to the argument of my essay. Drug abuse, is as rightly pointed out by Poe, the indulgence in stimulants. To be clearer, drugs serve the basic purpose of being medicinal, that is when taken in appropriate doses and illness- specific drugs. The use of drugs becomes abuse when it is used for reasons such as recreation or simply put for non-medical or inappropriate purposes. Addiction is defined as a compulsive use of a drug in spite of negative consequences. Whether the use of a drug is illegal or otherwise depends on different countries and their drug laws. For this essay, I will be looking at the local context. This essay will prove that the abuse of codeine is indeed an act of deviance and will employ deviance theories to back the claim that over the counter drugs perpetuate the drug scene in Singapore.

According to the Central Narcotics Bureau’s yearly drug situation report, within the period of 2012 and 2013, the percentage of drug abusers have been increasing, at a rate of about 2%. Previous years show even higher increases of about 5%. According to the Misuse of Drugs Act (AGC, 2008), there are 3 main classes of drugs categorized with alphabets and another group of drugs known as controlled drugs. Class A drugs are considered to be the most harmful followed by Classes B and C. The use and trafficking of the drugs listed across these groups warrant arrest and conviction if caught. Some of the common drugs that are used include heroin, cannabis, and cocaine among many others. Another such drug that is gaining prominence as a recreational drug is codeine.

Certain regular over the counter coug...

... middle of paper ...

...he cough mixture repeatedly.

An article from the Straits Times, which was referred to earlier, mentioned examples of illegal suppliers having been caught with up to 3600 litres of codeine laced cough mixture, which undoubtly would have supplied countless addicts. But, the report stated that that particular supplier had been sentenced to merely 9 months in jail, which he was appealing. This, in my opinion is a very lax sentence and may send the wrong signal to drug addicts and other drug deviants who may interpret the consumption of cough syrup, which I emphasize, has similar effects to heroin, as legally less punishable and less policeable.

I do accept the valid point that unlike heroin which is clearly legally defined as an illegal drug, codeine containing cough syrups cannot be considered under the same legislations due to their common use as a medicinal product.