PETALING JAYA: Drug addiction has seen a rise of nearly 30% from the previous year and the top three most abused drugs were amphetamines, cannabis and opiates, said the Home Ministry.
The ministry’s Deputy Secretary-General (Security) Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman, who was representing Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, said these were findings from statistics of arrests conducted by the police and the national anti-drugs agency.
Abdul Halim added that the police and AADK detected 118,820 drug addicts and abusers in the first half of this year, which is an increase of 27% from the previous year.
“They are receiving mandatory and voluntary treatment and rehabilitation at AADK, Health ministry, including private drug rehabilitation facilities across the country,” he said.
Abdul Halim said that from the figure, amphetamines were the most abused drug at 69.9%, followed by opiates at 25.7% and cannabis (2.8%).
“There is also an increase of more than 100% (of consumption) involving drugs under the psychotropic pills category, which were benzodiazepine, erimin 5 and dormicum,” said Abdul Hali, during the Drug Addiction Science national symposium at Sunway Putra Hotel on Thursday (Oct 26).
At the same time, Abdul Halim said the Asean Drug Monitoring report 2021 showed that Malaysia has 377 drug addicts in every 100,000 residents, which is the highest in the region.
“The Philippines has the lowest addiction rate which is two people (per 100,000 residents),” added Abdul Halim.
Abdul Halim also said the report showed Thailand recording the highest treatment for amphetamines, followed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore.
“Meanwhile, treatment for opiate abuse is the highest in Malaysia, followed by Myanmar and Thailand,” said Abdul Halim.
“Treatment for cannabis, on the other hand, was the highest in Thailand, followed by Malaysia, and Indonesia,” he added.
Save 30% for ads-free and full access now!
