SINGAPORE: To address the issue of drug trafficking and abuse, a new regional coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) was launched on Thursday (May 15).
The group, called the Asia-Pacific Confederation against Drugs (APCD), consists of five founding members – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hong Kong. Singapore is represented by the Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association (SANA).
The new coalition aims to strengthen regional cooperation through joint programmes and projects, and the sharing of best practices, said Singapore’s Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Thursday at the 2025 Asia-Pacific Forum Against Drugs.
“APCD will also seek to have a voice at international platforms like the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, to speak up against the rising tide of liberal policies and misinformation on drugs,” he added.
“If more organisations join APCD, its effectiveness and voice can be multiplied.”
Some of these efforts will require government backing, Mr Shanmugam noted, adding that Singapore is determined to provide support.
“We look at today as a baby step,” he said of the launch of the coalition, inviting other organisations to join the group.
“We can think of a larger organisation over time that brings in even more people into the fold, and even more civil society organisations into the fold, to see how we can take this fight further forward,” he said.
THE RISING THREAT OF DRUGS
In his speech at the opening of the forum in Singapore, Mr Shanmugam said the global drug situation is worsening at an “alarming pace”.
The number of people using drugs globally increased by 20 per cent compared with 10 years ago to nearly 300 million in 2022, the minister noted, warning of the proliferation of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine (meth) and fentanyl.
The threat of fentanyl, for instance, is “coming closer to home for all of us”, Mr Shanmugam said, pointing out that Malaysian police reported in March that they had detected fentanyl in wastewater testing.
“That suggests that people are abusing fentanyl in Malaysia,” he said.
Mr Shanmugam also warned of the rising demand for drugs with the rapid liberalisation of cannabis controls globally, saying that the idea of cannabis as a “soft drug” is largely driven by commercial entities.
As of 2024, nine countries and about half the states in the US had legalised recreational cannabis use.
“The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has estimated that in 2022, there were 228 million cannabis users worldwide,” the minister said.
“If you put these 228 million people in one place, in one country, that would be the seventh largest country in the world. These are the known users.”
He drew attention to the issue of drugs fuelling organised crime, citing cases in France and Mexico.
In Asia, Myanmar is reportedly one of the world’s largest manufacturers of synthetic drugs. The country was named as the biggest host of organised crime in the world, according to the Global Organized Crime Index in 2023.
