Singapore has designated every third Friday of May each year as Drug Victims Remembrance Day. The significance of this day is to remember the victims of drugs by creating awareness of how family and society, apart from abusers, are harmed by drugs. The inaugural commemoration will take place on 17 May 2024.

Microsite

Enter the microsite to learn more about the campaign and its activities. Watch the films, listen to the stories from victims of drug abuse, and make a promise to your loved ones to stay drug-free. Click here to enter microsite.

Resources

The global drug situation is worsening. More drugs are being produced and more countries are taking a softer approach towards drug control. Lobbying by drug producers and other groups with a similar interest to liberalise the drug regime, through well-funded marketing campaigns, has also shifted public attitudes towards drugs. Read about and stay informed on the global drug landscape and the impact that softening drug control has had on countries.  

Thailand:

• Thailand to ban recreational cannabis use by year-end, health minister says (29 Feb 2024)
• FDA Warns of Risks as Children are Hospitalized for Consuming High-THC Cannabis Cookies in Thailand (30 Mar 2023)
• Photos of kids as young as 9 smoking cannabis on Pattaya Beach spark outrage (6 Dec 2022)
• Five teens, 3-yr-old girl suffer from cannabis side effects: doctor (29 Jun 2022)

Oregon:

• Oregon recriminalizes drug possession after overdoses rocket (3 Apr 2024)
• Oregon governor to sign bill recriminalizing drug use (9 Mar 2024)
• Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs. Now It's Reversing course. (2 Mar 2024)
• Oregon lawmakers tell Gov. Tina Kotek to call state of emergency over Measure 110 (14 Nov 2023)

Ecuador:

• How Ecuador went from tourist haven to a nation in the grip of gangs (10 Apr 2024)
• Ecuador copes with rising violence and organized crime (18 Jan 2024)
• Drug traffickers groom children as young as 10 at “school of assassins” in Ecuador (16 May 2022) 

San Francisco:

• San Francisco’s “Pro-Drug Culture” (31 Jan 2024)
• Fatal drug overdoses hit all-time high for San Francisco in 2023 (17 Jan 2024)
• San Francisco faces deadliest year for drug overdoses due to rise of fentanyl (6 Dec 2023)
• Drugs are sold out in the open in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Inside the fight to curb it (4 Sep 2023)
• The million dollar streets strewn with bodies contorted by the effects of fentanyl (4 May 2023)
• San Francisco supervisor: Drug overdose billboard sends wrong message (6 Mar 2020)

Colorado:

• Driving while stoned leads to more traffic accidents in a country where marijuana is legal (6 Sep 2023)
• Colorado among the worst states in the country for drug use, study says (3 May 2023)
• Driving high in Colorado still a problem 10 years after legalization (20 Apr 2023)
• More than half of people involved in road accidents had drugs or alcohol in their system, study says (14 Dec 2022)
• In Colorado, it was noted that after cannabis was legalised for recreational use in 2013, traffic deaths where drivers were tested positive for cannabis increased by 138%. (Sep 2021)

New York:

• Third arrest made in New York fentanyl nursery child death (26 Sep 2023)

Latin America:

• Mexico probes 15 reported kidnappings in cartel hotspot (23 Mar 2024)
• Land of no return: the Mexican city torn apart by cartel kidnappings (13 May 2023)
• Booming cocaine trade now stains most of Latin America (25 Aug 2022)

British Columbia:

• Success or failure? Canada’s drug decriminalisation test faces scrutiny (30 Mar 2024)
• Court injunction against law banning public drug use disappointing, say police chiefs (2 Jan 2024)

Antwerp:

• How Antwerp became the drug den of Europe (24 Feb 2024)
• ‘Europe’s got a problem’ – Drug violence grips Belgium’s second city (7 Sep 2023)
• Outrage over girl’s ‘drug war’ death as Belgium’s cocaine haul breaks records (10 Jan 2023)

Netherlands:

• Mob-style killings shock Netherlands into fighting descent into ‘narco state’ (3 Jul 2022)

Sweden:

• Spread of gang violence wrecks Sweden’s peaceful image (5 Dec 2023)
• Kids offering to kill for Swedish gangs: Police chief (30 Sep 2023)
• A 13-year-old boy found shot in the woods was a victim of Sweden’s gang violence, prosecutor says (22 Sep 2023)