My drug-induced nightmare

I had nothing left to lose.  

My childhood was troubled. My parents’ marriage failed, and I grew up under the care of my grandmother, whose affection sometimes meant restriction. Feeling the need to escape, I left school after Sec One, drifted towards gangs and drugs in search of belonging. 

For more than a decade, I was caught in repeated cycles of drug abuse. I felt empty and lonely and turned to LSD – daily – to numb my senses. Days before Chinese New Year in 1992, my life changed forever. While hallucinating under the influence of substances, I jumped off the window of my 15th-floor flat. 

I landed on a car and survived. But the injuries were so extensive and the incident changed my life forever. The broken bones left me permanently disabled. I am now unable to walk, an irreversible consequence of my past. Yet, that near-fatal fall also offered a brutal jolt, pushing me to confront my addiction. I bear the scars left by drug abuse – a broken body, severed relationships, lost opportunities. Some of these cause immutable harm and tangible loss, but thankfully they also force us to rebuild our lives. 

His story also shows how early the path can begin: in Singapore, CNB reported that the youngest drug abuser arrested in 2025 was just 12 years old. 

Drug abuse harms more people than you think. Remember the victims.