http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,190277,00.html?
Here's my son. Cuff him, free him from addiction
This cabby drives glue-sniffing son to police post as last resort
By Andre Yeo
January 20, 2009
PAINFUL DECISION: Tom saw his son being handcuffed at the police station, but felt he did the right thing turning the teenager in. TNP PICTURE: GAVIN FOO
SOME Singapore parents are turning to the police when they are unable to get their kids to kick the glue-sniffing habit.
Tom, a taxi driver, is one of them.
It hurt him to turn in his own son but he was at his wit's end.
Tom works seven days a week to make ends meet, and he feared for his elder son, Mark, 16, who kept denying that he was sniffing glue, even when he came home 'stoned'.
The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) revealed the desperate acts of parents, as glue-sniffing cases keep rising in recent years. (See report on facing page.)
Glue-sniffing made its ugly appearance in Singapore 30 years ago.
In 1988, a total of 23 glue-sniffers were reported dead over an eight-year period.
The New Paper first reported the re-emergence of glue-sniffing in July 2007. The number of cases showed an upward trend last year too.
What the numbers don't disclose is the heartache of parents struggling to free their kids from the scourge of glue sniffing.
Unlike many others, Tom is willing to share his family's story, in the hope that others will benefit from hearing about it.
The New Paper interviewed the father and son at the Jurong Police Divisional HQ last Thursday. Their names have been changed as a minor is involved.
The problems first started last year, when Tom's elderly father, who lives with the family, bought a can of glue to mend a pair of his shoes.
Tom suddenly noticed that Mark, the second of his three children, was behaving unusually, coming home at odd hours and looking restless.
Then, one day, when he went to the toilet, he saw the can of glue sitting on the toilet pipes. Tom thought it strange that the glue had ended up there and confronted Mark, who denied having anything to do with it.
Said Tom: 'I did not have concrete evidence and I asked my father to monitor him when I went to work.'
Then, Mark came home one night from an outing with friends looking 'stoned' and mumbling incoherently.
The family then knew he was sniffing glue but wanted to give him a chance to cut the habit.
They confronted him about glue-sniffing but he denied ever taking a whiff.
His behaviour continued, so, one day, while Tom was at work, he asked his father to make Mark breathe into a plastic bag. His father could immediately smell the deadly stench of glue in the bag.
Again, Mark denied sniffing glue.
But Tom decided that he had enough of the lies and drove his son straight to the Choa Chu Kang Neighbourhood Police Post.
There, the police handcuffed the embarrassed teenager, took him from his father and threw him into a cell at the Jurong Police Divisional HQ.
Said Tom: 'I felt bad seeing him handcuffed. But for the future, I felt I was doing the right thing.
'My heart ached because nobody wants to do this to their children. But for him to get better, that was the only solution I could think of.'
Tom said he remembered what a scourge glue-sniffing was in the 1980s and reading in 1985 about Johnson Soh, the glue-sniffer whose family had to cage him up when he would not kick the habit. In 1987, Soh drowned in a pond, apparently after sniffing glue.
Despite his good intentions, Tom initially regretted turning his son in. His own parents and wife nagged at him and questioned him if he had done the right thing.
He felt alone.
Mark was also initially angry with his father.
Said the youngster, who has now kicked the habit: 'At first, I blamed him because (I thought) 'I am your son and you still put me here. Are you trying to ruin me or what?'
'But now, I don't blame him because if my father had not done this, I would not have changed.'
Said Tom: 'Initially, he really hated me a lot. He said nothing to me. From his expression, I could tell he was very disappointed with me.
'But he now realises I did it for his own good.'
The police gave Mark a verbal warning and he was released.
Then, last July, just four days before his 16th birthday, Mark relapsed and bought a tube of contact cement for $1.
This time it was his school which called the cops when he was seen behaving erratically there.
His blood test came back positive and he was hauled to the Juvenile Court with his parents.
He was put on probation for a year, has to observe a curfew, and has a probation officer from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to do spot checks on him at home.
And till the end of June, he has to stay at the Singapore Boys' Hostel on weekday nights, after school, where discipline is instilled in residents. He can go home only during the weekends.
From December to June, Mark also has to report once a week to the Jurong Police Divisional HQ as he is an inhalant supervisee.
Each time he goes there, or has to return to the hostel, his dad is with him.
Tom estimates that he might be losing $150 a week by being with his son. But he wants to show Mark he loves him no matter what.
Said Tom: 'I try to make him understand that no better how bad a child behaves, I will never give up on him.'
The CNB spokesman said parents can play a critical role in fighting the problem as most abusers are young.
She said: 'Parents can engage their children in conversations regularly to understand the stresses they face in their daily life and help them address peer pressure and emphasise that inhalant abuse is not the right way to fit in.'
And Mark is determined to stay away from the substance that almost ruined his life.
He said: 'I am not tempted to going back to sniffing (glue). Because of a $1 tube of glue, I got into so much trouble.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helplines
CNB: 1800-325-6666
Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association: 1800-733-4444
National Family Service Centre: 1800-838-0100
Parentline (Covenant Family Service Centre): 6289-8811
Community Addictions Management Programme: 6732-6837
Samaritans of Singapore: 1800-221-4444
Here's my son. Cuff him, free him from addiction
This cabby drives glue-sniffing son to police post as last resort
By Andre Yeo
January 20, 2009
PAINFUL DECISION: Tom saw his son being handcuffed at the police station, but felt he did the right thing turning the teenager in. TNP PICTURE: GAVIN FOO
SOME Singapore parents are turning to the police when they are unable to get their kids to kick the glue-sniffing habit.
Tom, a taxi driver, is one of them.
It hurt him to turn in his own son but he was at his wit's end.
Tom works seven days a week to make ends meet, and he feared for his elder son, Mark, 16, who kept denying that he was sniffing glue, even when he came home 'stoned'.
The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) revealed the desperate acts of parents, as glue-sniffing cases keep rising in recent years. (See report on facing page.)
Glue-sniffing made its ugly appearance in Singapore 30 years ago.
In 1988, a total of 23 glue-sniffers were reported dead over an eight-year period.
The New Paper first reported the re-emergence of glue-sniffing in July 2007. The number of cases showed an upward trend last year too.
What the numbers don't disclose is the heartache of parents struggling to free their kids from the scourge of glue sniffing.
Unlike many others, Tom is willing to share his family's story, in the hope that others will benefit from hearing about it.
The New Paper interviewed the father and son at the Jurong Police Divisional HQ last Thursday. Their names have been changed as a minor is involved.
The problems first started last year, when Tom's elderly father, who lives with the family, bought a can of glue to mend a pair of his shoes.
Tom suddenly noticed that Mark, the second of his three children, was behaving unusually, coming home at odd hours and looking restless.
Then, one day, when he went to the toilet, he saw the can of glue sitting on the toilet pipes. Tom thought it strange that the glue had ended up there and confronted Mark, who denied having anything to do with it.
Said Tom: 'I did not have concrete evidence and I asked my father to monitor him when I went to work.'
Then, Mark came home one night from an outing with friends looking 'stoned' and mumbling incoherently.
The family then knew he was sniffing glue but wanted to give him a chance to cut the habit.
They confronted him about glue-sniffing but he denied ever taking a whiff.
His behaviour continued, so, one day, while Tom was at work, he asked his father to make Mark breathe into a plastic bag. His father could immediately smell the deadly stench of glue in the bag.
Again, Mark denied sniffing glue.
But Tom decided that he had enough of the lies and drove his son straight to the Choa Chu Kang Neighbourhood Police Post.
There, the police handcuffed the embarrassed teenager, took him from his father and threw him into a cell at the Jurong Police Divisional HQ.
Said Tom: 'I felt bad seeing him handcuffed. But for the future, I felt I was doing the right thing.
'My heart ached because nobody wants to do this to their children. But for him to get better, that was the only solution I could think of.'
Tom said he remembered what a scourge glue-sniffing was in the 1980s and reading in 1985 about Johnson Soh, the glue-sniffer whose family had to cage him up when he would not kick the habit. In 1987, Soh drowned in a pond, apparently after sniffing glue.
Despite his good intentions, Tom initially regretted turning his son in. His own parents and wife nagged at him and questioned him if he had done the right thing.
He felt alone.
Mark was also initially angry with his father.
Said the youngster, who has now kicked the habit: 'At first, I blamed him because (I thought) 'I am your son and you still put me here. Are you trying to ruin me or what?'
'But now, I don't blame him because if my father had not done this, I would not have changed.'
Said Tom: 'Initially, he really hated me a lot. He said nothing to me. From his expression, I could tell he was very disappointed with me.
'But he now realises I did it for his own good.'
The police gave Mark a verbal warning and he was released.
Then, last July, just four days before his 16th birthday, Mark relapsed and bought a tube of contact cement for $1.
This time it was his school which called the cops when he was seen behaving erratically there.
His blood test came back positive and he was hauled to the Juvenile Court with his parents.
He was put on probation for a year, has to observe a curfew, and has a probation officer from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to do spot checks on him at home.
And till the end of June, he has to stay at the Singapore Boys' Hostel on weekday nights, after school, where discipline is instilled in residents. He can go home only during the weekends.
From December to June, Mark also has to report once a week to the Jurong Police Divisional HQ as he is an inhalant supervisee.
Each time he goes there, or has to return to the hostel, his dad is with him.
Tom estimates that he might be losing $150 a week by being with his son. But he wants to show Mark he loves him no matter what.
Said Tom: 'I try to make him understand that no better how bad a child behaves, I will never give up on him.'
The CNB spokesman said parents can play a critical role in fighting the problem as most abusers are young.
She said: 'Parents can engage their children in conversations regularly to understand the stresses they face in their daily life and help them address peer pressure and emphasise that inhalant abuse is not the right way to fit in.'
And Mark is determined to stay away from the substance that almost ruined his life.
He said: 'I am not tempted to going back to sniffing (glue). Because of a $1 tube of glue, I got into so much trouble.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helplines
CNB: 1800-325-6666
Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association: 1800-733-4444
National Family Service Centre: 1800-838-0100
Parentline (Covenant Family Service Centre): 6289-8811
Community Addictions Management Programme: 6732-6837
Samaritans of Singapore: 1800-221-4444
