MP goes hard against weed in Parliament after her son’s friends tried to get him blazed

Ang Mo Kio GRC Member of Parliament Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar recently faced the troubling notion that her son came close to becoming a pothead after his friends invited him for a 420 Blaze It sesh.

Bringing up her 18-year-old son’s experience in Parliament on Tuesday, the MP urged the authorities to do more in educational institutions amidst a tabled motion to strengthen the fight against drugs in Singapore, The Straits Times reports. This despite the existing laws against narcotics — of which the country is known to have some of the harshest penalties in the world.

Oh, and her son “sensibly declined”.

Not satisfied with how there exists a portion of young Singaporeans who have a lax view on soft drugs like cannabis, Dr Intan denounces the growing acceptance of medical and recreational marijuana around the world.

“We would also need the help of medical professionals and research experts to verify such claims, and more importantly to curb the incorrect perception that small doses of drug use on a daily basis is perfectly fine,” she said.

Most probably, she’s referring to how marijuana has been effective in treating glaucoma, epilepsy, Dravet’s Syndrome, reduce anxiety, slows the progression of Alzheimer’s, eases the pain of multiple sclerosis, relieves discomfort with arthritis, soothes tremors for those with Parkinson’s, reduce pain and nausea from chemotherapy, and many more.

Dr Intan also brought up the issue of synthetic weed — designer drugs that produce the effects of cannabis without being able to be detected during drug tests. According to her, a friend of her son has been taking such drugs to avoid getting caught for drug usage through routine urine tests.

Despite many other major countries starting to decriminalize weed, Singapore has been a major buzz kill in the efforts to legalise it. Last year on 4/20, Jamaica rebuked the United Nations for their “outdated” status on cannabis — to which our own Minister of Law K. Shanmugam firmly attested that Singapore will never soften their drug policies.

“For us, the choice is clear,” he said. “We want a drug-free Singapore, not a drug-tolerant Singapore.”