THAILAND RECRIMINALISING CANNABIS
The home affairs minister also spoke about Thailand’s move to recriminalise cannabis.
On Tuesday, Thailand’s health ministry issued an order prohibiting the sale of cannabis for recreational use and making it mandatory for any retail purchase to require a doctor’s prescription.
Singapore is looking out for possible outflows to the country, Mr Shanmugam said.
“The nexus between drugs and crime, and terrorism, also needs to be looked at. Many different issues. We try to maintain our openness and our connectivity, and our business-friendly environment.
“Our security agencies have looked at it and up the posture. It is a bit early to say what is going to happen, but we have to be more careful,” he added.
When Thailand decriminalised cannabis a few years ago, he said some people on “the more liberal side” asked when Singapore was going to change.
The Singapore government does not decide on such matters based on what other countries do, he added.
“We take a hard look, we look at the science, we look at the social impact, and the actual impact and we run the government of Singapore and the policies in the best interests of Singaporeans.
“I am absolutely convinced, the Cabinet is absolutely convinced that the right policy is to be strict on drugs, and you can see, the people who asked for liberalisation, are shutting their eyes deliberately to what is happening around the world and the immense harm,” said the minister.
He noted an incident at a Moscow airport where a man, who was reportedly drug-traced, had picked up an 18-month-old child and flung the child onto the ground. The child is in a critical condition.
For countries that have decriminalised cannabis, including Thailand previously, there are “young children who are high (on drugs)”, he said.
“Why would we want it? And 85 per cent of our population supports the tough stand that we take – keep it criminal, no decriminalisation, in fact they support the penalties too,” he added.
The Singapore government cannot be “zig-zagging” on its laws, he said.
“Different countries have their policy. We work in the best interests of Singaporeans, and it was the right policy to keep it criminalised, not soften our stance, and that remains the right policy.”
