Having been with CNB for almost 20 years, there has never been an uneventful moment in my career. No two cases are the same, and I continue to learn something new every day. When I started my career, I was attracted to the enforcement role of the job, which is typically what draws most people to join the Bureau. But beyond enforcement, CNB also focuses heavily on engaging and educating the public about the perils of drugs and its repercussions. This important aspect of our work goes hand-in-hand with our enforcement efforts, and collectively, they help to keep our drug situation under control.

One of the ways that I am involved in our education efforts is through our Youth Enhanced Supervision programme. In this programme, I speak to parents of first-time youth abusers to help them understand the importance of staying drug-free, and work with them to prevent their children from going back to drugs.

Since I joined the Bureau, I have experienced a wide spectrum of what a CNB officer does – from intelligence and investigations to conducting arrests, prosecuting and handling major cases. I have also done strategic work such as policy planning and procurement relating to projects big or small. One of my career highlights is having the opportunity to be part of the team that busted a cannabis syndicate where we seized nearly 30kg worth of drugs.

More recently, I have been working on the Next Generation Reporting Centre (NGRC) project, which is designed to automate the registration of drug supervisees and the processing of urine specimens. The NGRC is a first-of-its-kind solution for urine reporting in the world and entails major changes to the existing urine reporting workflow. With the use of robotics and automation in the NGRC, our officers’ work will be streamlined, and the manual process of urine handling will be cut.

Besides my passion to contribute towards the Bureau’s mission, what has made me stay on for two decades since, is how the Bureau supports and recognises my efforts. Having moved up the ranks from a Junior Officer to a Senior Narcotics Officer, I also had the honour of presenting the NGRC project to ministers and giving talks to doctors at the Duke-NUS Medical School about the project. It is the intangible outcomes that I have experienced here that I value the most.