{"id":86370,"date":"2024-10-26T23:13:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T23:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/26\/a-puff-of-marijuana-then-locked-up-in-compulsory-drug-rehab\/"},"modified":"2024-10-26T23:13:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T23:13:11","slug":"a-puff-of-marijuana-then-locked-up-in-compulsory-drug-rehab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/26\/a-puff-of-marijuana-then-locked-up-in-compulsory-drug-rehab\/","title":{"rendered":"A puff of marijuana \u2013 then locked up in compulsory drug rehab"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"SingaporeSingapore Prison Service<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A guard monitors CCTV in the Drug Rehabilitation Centre (DRC) control room<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Kim* is a young professional who started using cannabis when family life became messy. Things improved, but her drug habit stuck – and by then, her social circle was primarily made up of people who also used. With a reliable local supplier of weed, Kim\u2019s friends asked her if she would get some for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I did,\u201d Kim says. \u201cI never marked up the price in any way, because this was friendship… It\u2019s like, I\u2019m helping you to purchase something we both use anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singapore, where Kim lives, has some of the harshest drugs laws in the world.<\/p>\n

If you sell, give, deliver, administer, transport or distribute narcotics, that\u2019s drug trafficking. And the law also presumes you\u2019re a trafficker if you possess drugs in quantities that cross certain weight thresholds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kim\u2019s life unravelled very fast when one of the friends she sourced cannabis for was caught by the state\u2019s Central Narcotics Bureau.<\/p>\n

Kim was named as the supplier of the marijuana, and picked up too. After the authorities trawled through her phone, another friend was arrested – and Kim was charged with drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was wracked with horror,\u201d she says. \u201cTo have charges of trafficking levelled at me? That was just overwhelming. I felt complete and utter fear of what was going to pan out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cannabis for recreational use has been decriminalised in many places around the world. In the US, 24 states have legalised it. While cannabis is illegal In the UK, punishments for its possession have plummeted in recent years.<\/p>\n

In Singapore, if you\u2019re found with 15g you\u2019re assumed to be trafficking – and with 500g or more, the death penalty is mandatory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a controversial policy and there have been several recent cases<\/a>. The most recent execution – of a 64-year-old on a heroin charge – took place on 16 October. <\/p>\n

The Singaporean government won\u2019t tell the BBC how many people are currently on death row.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Singapore\u2019s death penalty becomes mandatory in drug cases involving<\/b><\/p>\n