The survey results reinforce the idea that Singaporeans have developed a reflexive aversion to the role that drugs can play in the destruction of society. In countries such as Colombia, drug barons such as the infamous Pablo Escobar once created transnational criminal empires that were powerful enough to test the law-enforcement capabilities of even the United States. Within such countries, drug lords ruled states within states, centres of parallel authority to which people bowed out of fear and greed. Drug trafficking, organised like a multinational business enterprise, spawned a network of coercion that came to be called narco-terrorism. Like Latin America, South-east Asia was once very much a part of a universe of addiction and criminality that paralysed individuals economically and destroyed constructive social interactions.