That's mental. I guess they're trying to encourage people abstain altogether, but what'll actually happen is anyone inclined to dabble will steer clear of the kind of substances that can be detected for a while after you take them and use things that disappear relatively quickly.
"No weed for me thanks, I don't wanna take any chances. I'll stick to the cocaine tonight"
Singapore has to be one of the worst places to live. I don't care how 'nice' their society might seem, their overstep is too steep by far.
"Custom officers can subject travellers to a drug screening test at the point of entry to Singapore. If you test positive for drugs, you can be arrested and prosecuted, even if the drugs were consumed prior to your arrival in the country."
Lived in Singapore for 3 years. It was probably the best place I've ever lived. Zero crime. Public transit everywhere. Everything walkable. Everything clean. Parks were beautiful. Food at hawker centers was so cheap it was cheaper to eat out than cook.
Now we're back in the states we hit the vape quite often but didn't need it in SG. No place has everything.
You don't necessarily need to be a drug addict to enjoy edibles or a joint every now and again. It's a really fucking nice way to unwind once in a while. That said some bits of SG life seem good, I only visited briefly but the food and the public transport was pretty good. If you don't ruffle any feathers and you have a well-paid job your life in Singapore would probably be pretty fine. However 30C year round might be a little bit repetitive.
The impression one gets by being there is that it’s a plasticised city inhabited by consumer drones. They also cane people for misdemeanours. Oh, and the migrant workers (on which their whole economy relies) routinely work 18h/day.
They seem pretty far from the Scandinavian countries.
Besides, I'd find it hard to trust any results from a totalitarian country.
> It sounds insane to you because you’re used to the filth we live in and don’t even see the decay that’s all around us anymore. Crime and violence are normal in our world and a government that won’t tolerate it is a foreign concept.
There are plenty of civilized countries with low crime rates that are not totalitarian.
Singapore is a parliamentary democracy with elected members of parliament and president. It is certainly not a "totalitarian country", although it could be considered authoritarian compared to western democracies.
People sometimes conflate being a single-party state with being a dictatorship/totalitarianism. Japan is considered a model democracy and has been run by the same party for over 70 years! It's just another way of doing democracy, there's no one size fits all approach to it.
Er, who considers Japan a model democracy outside of Japan?
And yes, democracy can be authoritarian as well. The problem is that if the government controls public discourse to a sufficient extent, any democracy becomes a sham no matter how fair elections themselves are.
Had to read about suicides in Singapore. I could not believe this, but apparently suicides were ILEGAL in Singapore until recently :
Suicide was decriminalised in Singapore with the passing of the Criminal Law Reform Bill on 6 May 2019.
Before that, Section 309 of the Penal Code stated that "Whoever attempts to commit suicide, and does any act towards the commission of such offence, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both."[13] The section was rarely enforced, between 2013 and 2015, only 0.6% of reported cases was brought to court.[
Makes you really think about executing your idea successfully. And also probably no point i hoping for suicide prevention hotline.
> Other ways of measuring “happiness” are bullshit as cultures are different. Suicide is a great metric for happiness.
Suicide rate doesn't measure anything except suicide rate. The happiness index and other studies are very thorough in what they measure, and choose things common to all cultures.
Bizarre to be defending a totalitarian regime because you have no crime. I guess you really think the means justify the ends, maybe because you don't realize the level of compromise.
I'm not trolling. Just because it might be a very pleasant place to live doesn't mean it isn't also totalitarian.
They charge people coming into their country if they have weed in their system (or their law allows them to and it seems they enforce it enough that countries warn their citizens), breaking no law in their country, and quite likely adhering to the law in their country of origin.
They make suicide illegal and PUNISH peoples attempts at it.
You don't think those two points alone (without even bothing to list additional obscene laws) are INSANE? Do you really want to defend them?
Singaporean law forbids their citizens and residents from using drugs in other countries. So if a Singapore resident goes to Amsterdam or Portland and smokes a joint there, they are complying with local laws but still breaking Singaporean laws. Laws with this sort of extraterritorial jurisdiction aren't without precedent. Particularly, other countries, like the US, UK and many others, have similar laws concerning some forms of sex tourism.
> Just because it might be a very pleasant place to live doesn't mean it isn't also totalitarian.
With that I agree, but I think a better word to describe Singapore is 'authoritarian.' Totalitarianism is an extreme form of authoritarianism, in which the government exercises a near total control over every aspect of your life. Singapore regulates many aspects of their citizens lives, as do all functional governments to at least some degree, but I think it falls short of totalitarianism.
Other countries, including the U.S. and European countries regulate who and who cannot come into their borders all the time. Youre entirely free to smoke weed and not visit Singapore. Who are you to dictate what laws they set on their own soil?
Re sucide: you should probably fact check that, because the criminality of suicide was recently repealed in Singapore.
But even if it wasnt, I find your stance hyperbolic considering lots of countries still criminalize suicide. Places in the U.S. considered suicide criminal all the way up to the 90s.
> Who are you to dictate what laws they set on their own soil?
I'm not dictating, I'm disaproving.
Sovereign nations can indeed have whatever laws they want, and I don't have to go there but I can continue to speak out against bad and unjust laws as I see it.
> I find your stance hyperbolic considering lots of countries still criminalize suicide.
Canada will ban Americans for life who've driven drunk in America but never drank a drop anywhere in Canada. If you try to sneak or lie your way in, they'll arrest you.
Don't go to Singapore if you like drugs. How hard can that be? I've been not going to Singapore my entire life.
> Canada will ban Americans for life who've driven drunk in America but never drank a drop anywhere in Canada. If you try to sneak or lie your way in, they'll arrest you.
That's not a bad analogy, except many countries won't let you in if you have a felony on your record. That isn't that unusual.
Singapore is going to arrest people for breaking no rule in their home country, and not for breaking any rules within the country, but simply for showing up at the door because you smoked weed before the 21 hour flight?
I mean, you're right I won't go because I think it's a crappy country, but that doesn't mean I still can't disprove I want to work towards a world where no country has shitty laws like that..
no we just value some things over more than others. like freedom above safety. that is a conscious and reasonable tradeoff we are happy to make. like i am happier living in a place that has higher rates of violent crime if that is the price for increased liberty.
assuming that what you value is the only right option - who's the chauvinist here?
I have always slightly suspected that Singapore keeps its laws tighter than they would otherwise prefer specifically to prevent half of Asia from trying to move there.
