Youth Substance Abuse

Overview

This overview provides a synopsis of the current knowledge base. Having considered all the information, we make sense of it by taking a stab at the following: 1) What are the priority issues that deserve attention, 2) What are opportunity areas that community or voluntary organisations can already take action on, and 3) What knowledge gaps deserve further investigation?

Priority Issues

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Actionable Opportunity Areas

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Knowledge Gaps

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Definitions

Substance Abuse

• [Insert definitions of different types of substances, eg Drugs, Alcohol, Glue?]
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Key Statistics & Figures

• Synopsis: Although there has been a decrease of drug abusers in Singapore, there has been an increase of youth substance abuses cases and majority of those arrested were under 30 years old.

Drug Abuse Figures

• According to the drug situation report (2016) [1] CNB arrested a total of 3,265 drug abusers in 2016. This was a 2% decrease from the 3,343 drug abusers arrested in 2015. While the number of repeat drug abusers arrested decreased by 6%, from 2,034 in 2015 to 1,917 in 2016, the number of new drug abusers arrested increased by 3%, from 1,309 in 2015 to 1,348 last year. Close to two-thirds of new abusers arrested were youths under 30 years of age.
• There are 151 young Singaporeans studying in primary to tertiary public educational institution caught for drug offences in 2016. There are 124 being caught in 2015 and 83 in 2014. With that, we can tell that as the years goes by, there are more and more numbers of youths in Singapore who are involved in substance abuse.

Youth Drug Abuse Figures

• According to CNB, 3,245 drug abusers were arrested last year, a 3 per cent decrease from the year before. The number of repeat drug abusers arrested also went down 7 per cent from 2,034 in 2015 to 1,898 last year.
• However, the number of new drug abusers arrested rose 3 per cent to 1,347 from 2015's 1,309. Among the new abusers arrested, close to two-thirds were below 30 years old, according to the latest statistics.
• About 41 per cent of the total drug abusers arrested last year were under 30, CNB figures showed.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/fewer-drug-abusers-arrested-in-2016-but-more-new-drug-abusers-ca-7592594

Map of Key Needs & Issues

[This table and arrows acts as a kind of visual map that allows a sense of sequencing; of the broad preconditions necessary for longer term outcomes to be achieved. Hyperlink the categories below to the specific page or sub-header in the page for easy navigation, so that you can click on 'Employment' below for example, and get straight to that page / segment]

Click the links below to go directly to specific areas of interest:

			Community Integration	↘
					Social Inclusion
			Family & Caregiving	↗
					Financial Independence
			Employment	↗
	Education	↗

Sub-pages

• If there are population segments that have substantial enough information or interest, then create sub-pages for them. e.g. 'Autism' can be a stand alone pages linked to the Disability pages if the autism community is keen to populate more autism specific information. Or, artists with disability can populate a 'Arts & Disability' page.
• Insert links to these sub-pages.

Areas of Needs / Desired Outcomes

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Existing Programmes	Gaps & Their Causes	Possible Solutions

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Existing Programmes	Gaps & Their Causes	Possible Solutions

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Existing Programmes	Gaps & Their Causes	Possible Solutions