Abstract
In the last few years the pattern of drug abuse in Singapore (an island city-republic with a land area of 584 km2 and a population of 2.3 million) has undergone dramatic changes. The changing pattern resulted in the introduction in 1973 of the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) to replace the Dangerous Drugs Act and the Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act, which were found to be inadequate. The abuse of Mandrax (methaqualone) rose to a high point in 1973 and 1974 [1] but tapered off to almost nil in 1976. However, during this period there was an alarming increase in heroin abuse.