Young addicts feed on easy online access

Online sellers send numbers in drug rehab to highest since 2008 - many are young and repeat offenders

- Samuel Devaraj

At 14 years old, Rahmat (not his real name) began abusing cough syrup and sleeping pills, after picking up the habit from people he played street soccer with.

He became hooked on codeine an opioid and Class B controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act. He said he downed two to four bottles of cough syrup a day.

Rahmat, 33, initially secured his supply by visiting multiple clinics to overcome limits placed on the prescription medication, which is currently 240ml per customer every four days.

Eventually, he contacted illegal sellers on messaging platforms. "I used to hop from clinic to clinic. Then, I realised that I could go to the red-light district (in Geylang) to get the cough syrup. But it was a bit dangerous because the police were around," he said.

"Sellers on the Telegram platform offered a delivery service. For a small fee, they could be at your home within an hour or two," he added.

"It became way easier (to buy drugs)." He said his cough syrup addiction led him to consume illicit substances such as Ecstasy and methamphetamine, otherwise known as Ice.

In 2020, he was diagnosed with diabetes, which he said was the result of consuming a voluminous amount of cough medicine.

Rahmat is now in his fourth stint at a drug rehabilitation centre (DRC). He is serving a 36-month sentence, which began in March 2023, for consuming Ice and absconding from a urine test.

Rahmat was one of three repeat offenders serving their sentence in DRC Institution B5 that The Sunday Times spoke to in March during a visit facilitated by the Singapore Prison Service.

DRC Institution B5, which is located in Changi Prison Complex, houses drug users who have been incarcerated in DRC three times or more.