Scholastic attainment and employment of drug users in Singapore

A study of the educational and employment aspects of drug use, which was carried out in 1980 in Singapore, included 100 drug users randomly selected from those who had been, because of drug addiction, registered for treatment and rehabilitation by some major voluntary organizations dealing with drug abuse problems, and 100 non-users individually matched for sex, approximate age, ethnic group, education and neighbourhood. The respondents were interviewed on the basis of a questionnaire designed to collect data for this study. Data on 11 items of the questionnaire were available in official records which were used to check the truthfulness of the responses of the drug users. The agreement between the two sources of data ranged from 83 to 100 per cent. The drug users were found to have significantly lower levels of educational attainment and poorer scholastic results than the non-users. Similarly, significantly more drug users than non-users had a lower career status, higher instability in employment and greater job dissatisfaction. The author suggests that educational and vocational guidance, counselling service, welfare schemes and in-service training should cater to this group of people.