Why I Think Singapore Will Never Legalise Cannabis
This post was inspired by the post on Mr Wang's site.
I have known about the lack of harmful effects of Marijuana for over a year now, thanks to Firefox's 'stumble' addon, and my choice of drugs in the interest category (with me for obscure reasons assuming they were referring to medicine). Yes, I have to admit, I was mildly surprised to find out that weed is actually less harmful and addictive than cigarettes and alcohol.
A lot of the sites I stumbled upon were arguing for the legalization of Cannabis in the USA, and I rather understood why those US citizens were puzzled as to why their country wouldn't legalize the drug, US being rather big on the 'freedom' issues.
But Singapore is a lot different from the USA. I suspect Singapore will never legalise Cannabis, and the reason is simple - the Singapore government cannot find a way to earn money off the sale of this drug.
Sales of alcohol and tobacco bring in large revenues for the Singapore government through taxes. The price of cigarettes since I turned 18 has nearly doubled, and this is definitely not due to inflation. In an apparent bid to make smoking prohibitive, the Singapore government has stopped the sale of small packets of cigarettes (those containing 10 sticks instead of 20), so that casual smokers would stop smoking when they realise they have to buy 20 sticks each time instead of 10, and finish the pack in the same time they'd normally finish the smaller one (or the cigarettes will become 'stale'). On my part, I quite believed that what the Singapore government was trying to do was to earn more money by inducing 'casual' smokers to start smoking larger packs because they did not want to kick the habit, and hence doubling their revenue from this group of people.
But at least when the Singapore government increases taxes on tobacco, it has a very good reason to - smoking harms, smoking kills, this has been scientifically proven, and so they can say that the high prices they set are actually for the good of the Singapore citizens.
However, for the Singapore government to even legalize Cannabis, it has to first recognise the fact that weed isn't a killer drug. This would bring up the issues that not only isn't Cannabis harmful, it is less addictive than tobacco, alcohol, and even caffeine. Apparently, you can't even die of an overdose of weed.
Let's take a look at what is considered 'expensive' in Singapore, apart from the cigarettes and alcohol that the government has put high prices on to protect the citizens. Housing and cars are expensive here too. But there are good reasons for this. Singapore is a small nation. Land is scarce. It would make sense for the prices of land to be high then, and with that goes the prices of housing units. Also, to stop overcrowding on the limited no. of roads this small island can have, cars are also expensive.
But what of Cannabis if this drug is ever legalized? I can't really offhand think of a reason why it should be highly taxed. Sure, the drug may be hard to get, and may be expensive already when it reaches Singapore, but it being not particularly harmful, and not posing much problems to the society as large, can't possibly induce that high a tax from the government for any clear reason.
Before Cannabis can even be legalized, the Singapore government would also have to do some research to ensure that the studies done on this drug are legit, and many meetings and votes etc have to be called before anything can even be decided. All this costs money.
Would the Singapore government ever spend such a sum of money for low almost nil returns? I sincerely doubt it.
But really, although I believe that if the Singapore government actually legalized this drug, it may be viewed as a positive step in giving its citizens more autonomy over their lives, I find myself wondering if the cost to do so is worth it. Sure, those having high ranking jobs in the Singapore government are rich, extremely rich for that matter, and perhaps that indicates that the Singapore government itself isn't broke. But what I suspect is that in the end, if the government ever decided to start the process of legalizing Marijuana, the normal taxpayers like you and me will be suffering the brunt of the costs. Possibly through another rise in the GST rate.
I have known about the lack of harmful effects of Marijuana for over a year now, thanks to Firefox's 'stumble' addon, and my choice of drugs in the interest category (with me for obscure reasons assuming they were referring to medicine). Yes, I have to admit, I was mildly surprised to find out that weed is actually less harmful and addictive than cigarettes and alcohol.
A lot of the sites I stumbled upon were arguing for the legalization of Cannabis in the USA, and I rather understood why those US citizens were puzzled as to why their country wouldn't legalize the drug, US being rather big on the 'freedom' issues.
But Singapore is a lot different from the USA. I suspect Singapore will never legalise Cannabis, and the reason is simple - the Singapore government cannot find a way to earn money off the sale of this drug.
Sales of alcohol and tobacco bring in large revenues for the Singapore government through taxes. The price of cigarettes since I turned 18 has nearly doubled, and this is definitely not due to inflation. In an apparent bid to make smoking prohibitive, the Singapore government has stopped the sale of small packets of cigarettes (those containing 10 sticks instead of 20), so that casual smokers would stop smoking when they realise they have to buy 20 sticks each time instead of 10, and finish the pack in the same time they'd normally finish the smaller one (or the cigarettes will become 'stale'). On my part, I quite believed that what the Singapore government was trying to do was to earn more money by inducing 'casual' smokers to start smoking larger packs because they did not want to kick the habit, and hence doubling their revenue from this group of people.
But at least when the Singapore government increases taxes on tobacco, it has a very good reason to - smoking harms, smoking kills, this has been scientifically proven, and so they can say that the high prices they set are actually for the good of the Singapore citizens.
However, for the Singapore government to even legalize Cannabis, it has to first recognise the fact that weed isn't a killer drug. This would bring up the issues that not only isn't Cannabis harmful, it is less addictive than tobacco, alcohol, and even caffeine. Apparently, you can't even die of an overdose of weed.
Let's take a look at what is considered 'expensive' in Singapore, apart from the cigarettes and alcohol that the government has put high prices on to protect the citizens. Housing and cars are expensive here too. But there are good reasons for this. Singapore is a small nation. Land is scarce. It would make sense for the prices of land to be high then, and with that goes the prices of housing units. Also, to stop overcrowding on the limited no. of roads this small island can have, cars are also expensive.
But what of Cannabis if this drug is ever legalized? I can't really offhand think of a reason why it should be highly taxed. Sure, the drug may be hard to get, and may be expensive already when it reaches Singapore, but it being not particularly harmful, and not posing much problems to the society as large, can't possibly induce that high a tax from the government for any clear reason.
Before Cannabis can even be legalized, the Singapore government would also have to do some research to ensure that the studies done on this drug are legit, and many meetings and votes etc have to be called before anything can even be decided. All this costs money.
Would the Singapore government ever spend such a sum of money for low almost nil returns? I sincerely doubt it.
But really, although I believe that if the Singapore government actually legalized this drug, it may be viewed as a positive step in giving its citizens more autonomy over their lives, I find myself wondering if the cost to do so is worth it. Sure, those having high ranking jobs in the Singapore government are rich, extremely rich for that matter, and perhaps that indicates that the Singapore government itself isn't broke. But what I suspect is that in the end, if the government ever decided to start the process of legalizing Marijuana, the normal taxpayers like you and me will be suffering the brunt of the costs. Possibly through another rise in the GST rate.
posted by Shelly at 1:45 AM
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