Is Methamphetamine legal in Singapore?

What sentences have courts imposed for Methamphetamine in Singapore?

Prosecutions recorded in Singapore, each checked against the official document cited below it. Individuals are never named, and these are examples of what has happened, not a prediction of what will. How we verify a court case.

Across 9 verified cases, sentences ranged from 23 years to 27 years. 2 cases carried the death penalty; 2 cases carried life imprisonment; 2 cases state no single comparable term.

• On 1 January 2023 a 24-year-old Singaporean man gave a urine sample containing methamphetamine after a police check at a hotel, and four months later officers seized not less than 1.58 grams of methamphetamine at his home. He pleaded guilty to consuming a specified drug as a repeat offender and to possession, having been admitted to a drug rehabilitation centre in 2017 and convicted of consumption in 2021. He received five years' imprisonment and three strokes of the cane for consumption, the mandatory minimum, and twelve months for possession. A first-time consumption offence attracts six to eighteen months, and simple possession carries up to ten years.

  2023a Singaporean man, 24 at the time of the offences

  Citation [2024] SGHC 209

  Charge Consumption of methamphetamine (s 8(b)(ii) punishable under s 33A(1), and s 8(a) punishable under s 33(1), Misuse of Drugs Act (2020 Rev Ed))

  Quantity not less than 1.58 g methamphetamine

  convicted of repeat consumption and possession of methamphetamine, five years' imprisonment and three strokes, and 12 months' imprisonment

  Sentencing floor The judgment records: “the minimum mandatory sentence of five years’ imprisonment and three strokes of the cane”

  Substances recorded methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)

• The Court of Appeal of Singapore dismissed the appellant's appeal and exercised its discretion to enhance his individual sentences. The first charge was enhanced to 27 years' imprisonment, ordered to run consecutively, and the global sentence was enhanced to 34 years' imprisonment.

  2023an accused person

  Citation [2026] SGCA 25

  convicted, 27 years' imprisonment on this charge, enhanced on appeal

  Substances recorded methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)

• The High Court of Singapore heard an appeal against sentence. The District Judge had imposed 25 years' imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane for the drug trafficking charge, within an aggregate of 25 years and 16 months. Applying the totality principle the appellate judge reduced that charge's sentence to 24 years' imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane and left all other orders unchanged, so the appellant would undergo imprisonment for a total of 24 years and 16 months and receive 15 strokes of the cane.

  2021an accused person

  Citation [2023] SGHC 349

  Charge possession of 217.94g of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking (s 5(1)(a) read with s 5(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act)

  Quantity 217.94 g methamphetamine

  convicted, 24 years' imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane on the drug trafficking charge, reduced on appeal

  Substances recorded methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)

• The General Division of the High Court of Singapore convicted the accused on four proceeded charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act. The court sentenced the accused to death on the first charge and to 14 years' imprisonment in the aggregate for the remaining three. A further charge concerning not less than 1.01g of methamphetamine was stood down by the Prosecution.

  2021an accused person

  Citation [2025] SGHC 37

  Charge having in his possession for the purpose of trafficking (s 5(1)(a) read with s 5(2) and punishable under s 33(1))

  Quantity not less than 38.78 g heroin; not less than 7.22 g heroin; not less than 17.62 g methamphetamine

  convicted on four charges, sentenced to death on the first and 14 years' imprisonment in the aggregate on the rest

  Substances recorded synthetic-cannabinoids, heroin, methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)

• The Court of Appeal of Singapore dealt with an appellant facing a drug trafficking charge under the Misuse of Drugs Act alongside a rioting charge under the Penal Code and a drink driving charge under s 67(1)(b) of the RTA. The controlled drug in the trafficking charge was methamphetamine; the breath alcohol reading in the case belongs to the road traffic offence and to no drug charge.

  2020an accused person

  Citation [2026] SGCA 3

  Charge a charge of trafficking in not less than 166.99g of methamphetamine (s 5(1)(a), punishable under s 33(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act)

  Quantity not less than 166.99 g methamphetamine

  convicted

  Substances recorded methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)

• Officers of the Central Narcotics Bureau stopped a car in 2020 and seized four packets later analysed as methamphetamine. The trial court convicted the accused of possession for the purpose of trafficking and imposed life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.

  2020a local man, 26 at the time of the offence

  Citation [2024] SGCA 33

  Charge for the purpose of trafficking (s 5(1)(a) read with s 5(2), Misuse of Drugs Act)

  Quantity not less than 367.2 g methamphetamine

  convicted of possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane

  Sentencing floor The judgment records: “The sentence imposed was the minimum possible under the MDA.”

  Substances recorded methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)

• The General Division of the High Court of Singapore convicted the accused on two charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Both statutory conditions for the alternative sentencing regime were satisfied, so the court imposed life imprisonment and caning instead of the death penalty, sentencing the accused to life imprisonment and the minimum of 15 strokes of the cane on each of the two charges. Because the global number of strokes could not exceed the statutory maximum, the total caning imposed was 24 strokes.

  2020a 29-year-old accused person

  Citation [2026] SGHC 137

  Charge importing controlled drugs without authorisation (s 7 of the Misuse of Drugs Act)

  Quantity not less than 42.18 g heroin; not less than 330.8 g methamphetamine

  convicted on two charges, life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane

  Substances recorded heroin, methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)

• The General Division of the High Court of Singapore convicted the accused of unauthorised trafficking in controlled drugs containing more than 250g of methamphetamine. Section 33(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act prescribes the death sentence where that offence is made out, and the court sentenced the accused to death.

  2018an accused person

  Citation [2023] SGHC 173

  convicted, sentenced to death

  Substances recorded methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)

• In March 2011 a 30-year-old Singaporean man was arrested in his car in Singapore with two bags holding not less than 386.7 grams of methamphetamine, above the quantity at which trafficking attracts the death penalty. He did not dispute carrying it but said he did not know how much, because he had an arrangement with his supplier that no delivery would exceed 250 grams. The trial judge accepted that, amended the charge to possessing 249.99 grams for the purpose of trafficking, and imposed 23 years' imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane. The Court of Appeal dismissed the Prosecution's appeal.

  2011a Singaporean man, 30 at the time of the offence

  Citation [2015] SGCA 12

  Charge possessing 249.99g of Ice for the purpose of trafficking (s 5(1)(a) read with s 5(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act (Cap 185, 2008 Rev Ed))

  Quantity 249.99 g methamphetamine

  convicted of possessing methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, 23 years' imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane

  Substances recorded methamphetamine

  Source eLitigation (Singapore Courts)