I was puzzled to read about Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam’s announcement in Parliament that a Drug Victims Remembrance Day will be marked on the third Friday of May starting this year (S’pore to mark Drug Victims Remembrance Day every May, Feb 29).

The intention is to remember drug abusers, their families and loved ones as victims of drug traffickers and the lucrative drug trade.

While the motivation behind doing this is laudable, I wonder if it is misconceived in that the real victims are their innocent families, their loved ones and the wider community. 

More often than not, drug users are hardly innocent victims as many of them turn to crime and add to their family’s and societal misery by feeding their drug addiction. 

Drug traffickers and their syndicates look for vulnerable groups, including the young and impressionable, to exploit. Once addicted, these abusers themselves turn to crime, including trafficking, to feed their habit.

Is there any reason to single out drug abuse for a remembrance day, considering that there are other forms of abuse and addictions like alcohol consumption and smoking, which have a similar impact on families, loved ones and society? 

The causes of addiction of whatever form are numerous and complex and worthy of further study and research. Such abusers are often hardly victims and their plight self-inflicted.

I applaud the tough stand the Government takes against drug abuse and trafficking and the commendable efforts to rehabilitate abusers, but to single them out as victims is hardly appropriate.

Winston Chew Choon Teck