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We ranked the most unhinged ways our friends have said 'no' to drugs

We ranked the most unhinged ways our friends have said 'no' to drugs

We ranked the most unhinged ways our friends have said 'no' to drugs
PHOTO: AsiaOne/Wan Yeung

You don't need us to tell you that consuming controlled substances is wrong. Not only is it illegal to do so, but any abuse of drugs also affects your well-being, regardless of whether the drugs are taken in Singapore or overseas.

That said, it's easy to say "no" to drugs on paper. But when push comes to shove, you might have to get creative in rejecting drugs. We asked our friends for their stories on how they've said "no" and ranked them according to just how extreme they had to be. Here's what our friends had to do:

*Ratings have been done just for laughs. These methods may not necessarily reflect the best way to say "no" to drugs. Names have also been changed.

'I cut off a friend who tried selling ketamine to our clique'

I was hanging out with a group of friends one night when one of them said they felt bored. That's when my friend Diana asked us if we wanted to have some fun and whipped out a small plastic capsule.

Diana said they were ketamine-laced vapes. She said she would let us try a puff of hers first and if we wanted more, she was also selling them. I was appalled to know that she was selling drugs but gave her the benefit of the doubt that she didn't know ketamine was a controlled substance.

Our clique was adamant about not trying, but we also warned Diana that selling ketamine in any form could get her into serious trouble. That's when she called us "cowards" and said that we were betraying our friendship with her. She emotionally blackmailed us that we weren't 'sisters' as we'd call ourselves and was deeply upset that we didn't want to try or buy ketamine.

This went on for weeks, with Diana continuing to push the ketamine-laced vapes onto us. Ultimately, we decided that it was best to cut Diana out of the group, as it was affecting our clique's morale. We told her she could be part of the clique again once she stopped peddling drugs, but we haven't heard back from her since.
- Jia Ling, 22

Unhinged rating: 2/5. This was cold but necessary; after all it takes guts to cut a 'bad' friend out. Plus, you don't need drugs to have a good time.

'I pretended I didn't understand English whenever I was offered weed'

My college roommate in the US, Janie, was a pothead who spent most of her time in her room getting high. It didn't really bother me that she smoked weed, so we were mostly civil to each other, but not close friends.

One day, she saw me working on a paper in our shared kitchen and asked me how I was doing. I told her I was stressed out about not being able to meet the deadline and could really use a break. That was when Janie suggested I try weed to calm my nerves. She took a joint out from her pocket and handed it to me.

I didn't want to take it but didn't know how to say 'no' either, so I pretended that I had no idea what she meant. "Sorry, no speak English," I said. She was confused and tried to explain that weed could help me relieve stress. Again, I just smiled and repeated that I didn't speak English. She called me weird but walked away.

I learnt that it was quite effective in rejecting drugs. I attended a number of frat parties while I was studying in the US and there was always a bong being passed around. Whenever it was offered to me, I'd just say I didn't speak English. I'd usually get called weird after that, but they were usually too stoned to remember what happened the day after.
- Vel, 35

Unhinged rating: 3/5. We're not sure if we want to get called weird, but whatever works!

'I swapped their shrooms for dried shiitakes'

I was hosting a small gathering at my place when a friend of mine, Justin, said he had managed to score shrooms, also known as magic mushrooms, from his recent trip to Bali. He said it was a harmless party drug and wanted to share the experience with everyone else.

I wanted no part of this and tried to discourage Justin from consuming shrooms at my party. He told me not to be a party pooper and asked for a cup of hot water so he could steep the psilocybin mushrooms to make hallucinogenic tea.

dried shiitake mushrooms
Shiitake mushrooms. PHOTO: Unsplash/ Patrycja Jadach

Instead of fighting him, I took the shrooms from him and said I'll prepare the tea in the kitchen. That's when I took my mother's dried shiitake mushrooms from the pantry and steeped those in hot water instead. Then, I threw the shrooms down the rubbish chute and went back to the party.

Justin was the first to take a sip. I told the rest to hold off first, so we could see how he would react to the 'drug'. After about five minutes, Justin claimed we looked distorted, and he could see new colours.

I then broke the news that he had just drunk shiitake mushroom water and I'd thrown the shrooms away; Justin also admitted he was faking his hallucinations. Thankfully, he managed to see the humour in the situation, and we all had a big laugh about it.
- Gerald, 28

Unhinged rating: 4/5. We're just glad it worked out in the end!

'I've growled at people who tried to offer me drugs'

During my years in NS, my friends and I would head to amusement parks like Gay World when we booked out for the weekend. Occasionally, we would be approached by drug peddlers at the discos pushing drugs like ecstasy and LSDs (lysergic acid diethylamide). My friends and I would just growl and even bark at them, which would scare them off.
- Lim Meng, 66

Unhinged rating: 5/5. Definitely unhinged! Way to go, Lim Meng!

It's not that easy saying 'no' to drugs

While these methods of saying "no" to drugs seem like it's all fun and games, the reality is that it isn't easy rejecting drugs. The four people we spoke to shared that it usually took a number of tries before people took their rejection seriously.

Gerald, for example, felt that he had to resort to doing something extreme because his refusal to take drugs were ignored.

Jia Ling seconded the statement, sharing that it's even harder to reject a friend you've known for years. "I was afraid to stand up to Diana because we had been friends for so long and I knew that rejecting her could possibly mean the end of a friendship," she commented.

telegram screenshot
Marijuana and related paraphernalia being sold through Telegram channels. SCREENSHOT: Telegram

Jia Ling also shared that her friends were tempted to just give in, simply because drugs have become so readily available and normalised among her peers. She showed AsiaOne a Telegram channel her ex-classmates from poly had forwarded to a group chat where you could get weed and other party drugs. The channel is now defunct, but Jia Ling says a new one pops up every now and then and that gets forwarded to their class group chat.

She admitted she felt FOMO (fear of missing out) knowing that so many of her peers took drugs. It was the same for Vel who was surrounded by potheads constantly when she was studying in the US, pre-weed legalisation.

"Our resident advisor handed out brochures that claimed that two out of three students smoked weed and that we shouldn't become another statistic," said Vel. "All I could think of was that I wanted to be the third student to smoke weed because I felt like I was missing out on the whole college experience, and the fact that it's so accessible there made it especially hard to resist."

Dealing with FOMO was tough, but Vel made it a point to check in with her group of friends whenever temptation hit. They had made a pact to not smoke pot while on their exchange programme because they didn't want to deal with side effects like loss of concentration and addiction, especially since they were this close to their graduation. "I would text them whenever my roommate would offer me weed, and my friends would come pick me up so that I could literally walk away from temptation," she said.

Vel is thankful for her friends that stepped up to help her say 'no'. "It's not easy because you don't want to be seen as a killjoy when everyone else is having fun," she explained. Jia Ling agreed: "we all knew taking drugs was wrong, but we were all waiting for someone else to say it first."

For Jia Ling, it was her friend Sharifa who took that first step. This came after Diana tried explaining to the clique that "ketamine in vape form was safe and would only give [them] a mild high". Sharifa had been silent for most of the night then finally told the group that she would be dropping out of the clique, as she did not want to be friends with druggies.

"We were shocked because she was the type to proclaim, 'sisters before misters' and she was willing to throw all that away just to get her point across," Jia Ling remarked. She then said that Sharifa's statement helped embolden her to take a stand too.

Jia Ling has tried to reach out to Diana outside of the clique to intervene in her drug abuse but hasn't heard back from her. That's not stopping Jia Ling though, and she hopes Diana will one day reply to her to get help.

  • If you suspect your friend to be abusing controlled drugs, we advise that you may persuade him/her to surrender to the Central Narcotics Bureau, so that appropriate actions can be taken to assist the person further.
  • Members of the public who have drug-related information are advised to make a report to CNB by calling 1800 325 6666 or submitting feedback on the CNB website.

Lighting up for a Drug-Free Singapore

The one thing all four of our interviewees wanted to reiterate was that just as much as there can be negative influences, we can choose to be positive influences to friends and family too.

esplanade drugfree sg light-up 2024
DrugFree SG Light-Up in 2024. PHOTO: CNB

That's the stance Singapore takes, and you'll see this symbolically displayed as buildings and structures are lit up in green and/or white - colours of the Anti-Drug Ribbon - on June 26 for the annual DrugFreeSG Light-Up. Singapore organises the Light-Up to commemorate the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as a visible pledge of the nation's support for a drug-free cause.

Even as other countries champion drug tolerance, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) recognises that prevention is of utmost importance to ensure Singapore remains safe from the social destruction of drug addiction.

That prevention starts with education. Scientific research backed by lobbyists will have you believe that popping a pill or smoking a joint is relatively harmless. But there are many more credible studies that show the negative and harmful effects of drug abuse.

But knowledge isn't enough anymore. As we've seen from our interviewees, it's not just celebrities and movies that glamorise drug abuse; influences can come from those closest to us, asking, "why not?" But we can still choose to push back and say "no".

It's a tough road ahead, but you can find resources at Uninfluenced.sg to help you think deeper about drug issues, so that you'll be able to make the right choice for yourself. The campaign explains how drug abuse gets normalised in society, as well as content citing research about the harmful side effects of cannabis, even when used casually.

Find out how you can stay uninfluenced to keep Singapore drug-free at Uninfluenced.sg.

This article is brought to you in partnership with the Central Narcotics Bureau.

raewyn.koh@asiaone.com

For more original AsiaOne articles, visit here.

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