JULY 10, 2015: IT’S time to up the ante on the traffickers and producers of the drug ice and consider caning them as a penalty and deterrent.I have today written to the head of the Government’s Ice Taskforce, Ken Lay, reiterating the call of many in the community for tougher penalties for drug pushers.If we keep on slapping people on the wrist we’re going to get the same outcomes.It’s time to do things differently, and I suggest we take a look at how they address the problem in Singapore.Their use of corporal punishment seems to be a highly effective deterrent.I would like to stress that I am referring to traffickers, and not drug users and small scale suppliers - who are often addicts themselves - caught up in the trade.This is not about users; it’s about traffickers and the commercial producers of ice.It’s about those involved in the production and sale of drugs on a large scale.It’s about the people who make a living, and often a very comfortable living, out of peddling this destructive drug which destroys the lives of users and their families, and costs the country dearly in so many ways.I believe corporal punishment is warranted for those engaged in the large scale supply and manufacture of drugs for commercial sale.I have asked Ken Lay and the Ice Taskforce to conduct research on Singapore’s use of corporal punishment and its correlation to reducing levels of drug offences.