Lee: Set up special court to deal with drug cases

PETALING JAYA: A special court to handle drug-related offences must be set up to deal with the long-standing menace, said Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

Lee, who is the National Social Council member, said there were many drug- related cases and going through the normal court process would take years.

He said this when commenting on the National Strategic Plan to Combat Drugs, which is in its final draft stage.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the plan was expected to be tabled in the Cabinet for approval.

Lee added that more than 65% of prisoners were involved with drug-related crimes.

To date, he said, no holistic solution had been found and problems of drug abuse “is serious as ever”.

He said since January 2010 till February this year, 131,841 drug addicts had been identified in the country.

Almost 70%, he said, were in the age group of between 15 and 39 years old.

“These are just the identified addicts. What about those who are not identified?

“The rule of thumb is for every one addict identified, there are four unidentified addicts.

“This is only from 2010 but what about since the 1980s?

“I think you can safely say the figure runs into hundreds and thousands of addicts in the country,” he added.