S'pore woman gets jail for offering meth to 17-year-old daughter as 'bonding activity'
They would do the drug at least once a week.Low Jia Ying |
A woman in Singapore was sentenced to seven years and three months in jail on Monday (Jun. 27) for offering her 17-year-old daughter methamphetamine and for other drug offences, The Straits Times (ST) reported.
The court heard that the 37-year-old mother gave her daughter "Ice" (the street name for methamphetamine) as a family bonding activity from November 2020 until they were caught in March 2021.
Mother helped to prepare drug for daughter
According to ST, the woman offered her daughter the drug and allowed her to smoke it at home.
She also helped her daughter prepare the drug, and passed her a smoking utensil, which the daughter used to take "several puffs" with.
The mother cannot be named to protect the identity of her teenage daughter.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Joseph Gwee said the woman had admitted to preparing "Ice" for herself and her children to smoke.
He added that they did so at least once a week.
The mother and daughter were arrested following an operation by the Central Narcotics Bureau on March 21, 2021 at around 11pm.
A packet containing a "crystalline substance" that was found in their home during the operation contained 0.89g of "Ice".
Urine samples taken from the pair after their arrest were also found to contain the drug.
Judge: Mother ought to have protected children from drugs
The woman pleaded guilty to three charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act, while another two charges were taken into consideration, reported ST.
One of the charges taken into consideration was for allowing a 20-year-old man to consume "Ice", though court documents did not state the relationship between the woman and the man.
District Judge Lim Tse Haw sentenced the woman to five years' jail for consuming the drug, and two years and three months' jail for giving her daughter the drug.
She was also sentenced to an eight-month jail sentence for drug possession, which will run concurrently with her other sentences.
The judge said instead of allowing her daughter to consume the drug, the woman ought to have protected her children from drugs "at all cost".
The woman's lawyer, Sadhana Rai, asked for two years' jail for the offence involving the daughter, and cited a letter from the daughter which said that she was not introduced to the drug by her mother.
The daughter wrote she had been exposed to the drug when she was placed in a home, and was influenced by others to take the drug.
Rai said the mother took drugs with her children as she thought this was a way for her to control and limit the drugs her children would consume, though this was a "misguided and warped way of thinking", the lawyer admitted.
Court documents did not state whether any action was taken against the daughter after her arrest.
