Marijuana easily available at local universities

PETALING JAYA: Marijuana dealers based in several colleges and universities are taking the term “higher education” to a whole new level.

They have created a peer-to-peer distribution system that is making the substance shockingly accessible to students.

The Star’s team discovered this when reporters from the R.AGE section posed as students at several campuses in the Klang Valley.

They were able to get in touch with a 20-year-old marijuana dealer.

“I get my stock from a supplier outside of my campus and I basically help others buy it for them,” said the dealer, a business degree student who supplies marijuana to colleges and universities around the Klang Valley at a starting price of RM50.

Another student, who said he regularly smoked marijuana in his university’s carpark, claimed most major colleges and universities in Malaysia had at least one such dealer.

“You only need one dealer. The other students will buy and distribute it among themselves,” he said.

“It’s all about friendship and sharing. It’s the culture (we have) in colleges now. We all buy weed and get together to smoke up.”

Checks with four other colleges also turned up similar stories, with many saying the drug was easily available.

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“Even if we help friends get some weed from dealers in campus, they won’t know where we get it from. It’s a thing among us users not to ask,” said another university student.

The situation is the same in Penang, said a real estate agent who recently graduated from college. She said the marijuana there was fresher as it was closer to Thailand.

“It’s very common for dealers in Penang to have direct contact with suppliers in Thailand,” she said.

Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine associate professor Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj said he had seen a “shocking” increase in young patients seeking treatment for marijuana-related issues.

“The focus on legalisation (of marijuana) in the United States seems to have given young people the impression that marijuana is harmless – but it’s not,” said Dr Andrew.

“What they don’t realise is that legalisation is only for medicinal purposes, not recreational.”

He added that new studies had confirmed that unregulated marijuana intake over several years could result in serious mental health issues, including psychosis.

“I have been really shocked at how easily available it is today. Some of my patients tell me there are even home delivery services.”

Kuala Lumpur narcotics chief ACP Wan Abdullah Ishak told R.AGE that the marijuana was usually brought in from Thailand via the northern border states and Indonesia via Johor.

“They bring it in on small fishing boats through remote mangrove forests, so tracking them down is very difficult,” said ACP Wan Abdullah.

National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK) deputy director-general Izhar Abu Talib said marijuana addicts made up 20% of the rehab cases they handled, with the majority of cases involving students.

An officer in the Education Ministry said they could not comment on the matter yet.