Amid a growing global trend by governments to decriminalise and legalise drugs, Singapore is standing firm that it will not go down that path.

Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs and National Development) Desmond Lee reinforced the country’s zero-tolerance stance against drugs at a United Nations (UN) event in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday (March 15), speaking at the final negotiations during the 59th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. This meeting comes before April’s UN General Assembly Special Session, a platform for nations to debate the future of global drug policy and review a 10-year global plan started in 2009 against drugs.

Singapore’s zero-tolerance drug policies are well-known, but new anti-addiction posters suggest government designers have been gobbling mind bending substances themselves.

The nation’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) has a whole archive of frankly, bizarre material warning children not to step outside the realm of the law, lest they die in a drug-fueled haze or are put on death row.

Several of the CNB’s strange cartoon characters and weird ‘nursery’ rhymes have become a talking point at this year’s UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) gathering.

Cases of young people influenced by growing acceptance of drug overseas a worrying trend

It was a National Geographic documentary he watched at home on television that got him believing that smoking cannabis could help with his attention deficit disorder (ADD).

The documentary featured the supposed medicinal uses of the drug.

Jack (not his real name), was 15 then and doing fine at school, with parents who were working professionals. Through neighbourhood friends, he got his hands on the drug and started smoking it once a week.

He was nabbed by narcotics officers late last year in the Housing Board flat where he lived. Now a 17-year-old student at the Institute of Technical Education, he was put on urine supervision and made to undergo counselling.

The Colorado experiment in legal marijuana is being watched around the country. That’s hardly surprising. The state, being the first in the country to legalize marijuana, is setting the standard for the management and control of this social experiment.

It’s not an easy task, and it will take time and many false starts and failures to create a smooth, reliable system with which to administer and manage the legal sale and use of marijuana.

One can argue that it was a bad decision, but the fact is voters of Colorado said marijuana use will be legal in this state.

Cannabis use is going mainstream in North America, but that's not the case everywhere. If you're travelling to any of these destinations, you'll want to consider a temporary hiatus from herb.

From Singapore: “Try wearing clothes that are marijuana related e.g. pictures of weed leaves etc.”

From Cape Town, South Africa: “I bought one bankie, and was caught by police. . . . African prisons SUX!!! So stay away from them.”

From Baghdad, Iraq: “Go up to most any civilian military contractor, at a good time, and just ask!”

For those who enjoy sampling the local grass as much as other travelers seek out regional wines or craft beers, the world has many welcoming corners.

Like many of their peers, they think drug use is fine so long as consumed in moderation

SINGAPORE — In school, they were students who attended classes diligently and did not have any disciplinary issues. At home, they had good family support and none of their family members had a record of criminal or drug offences, nor did they drink or smoke.

Yet they later became users of cannabis, and like many of their peers, believed the use of drugs — especially cannabis — was fine so long as one consumed it in moderation. And social media and celebrities were influences on them to try drugs.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Jackie Chan was named Singapore's first celebrity anti-drug ambassador on Thursday and the kung fu movie star sought to warn the city state's youth off illegal substances as he spoke of his son's drug crimes.

The Hong Kong actor's son, Jaycee Chan, was released from a Chinese jail in February after serving a six-month sentence on drugs charges.

He had been formally charged last year with "the crime of sheltering others to take drugs" after testing positive for marijuana and police saying they had found 100 grams of the drug at his Beijing home.