80% of drug addicts in Malaysia are Malays, Parliament told

KUALA LUMPUR: Majority of the drug addicts in Malaysia are Malays, the Dewan Rakyat was told.  

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed (pic) said the community comprised nearly 80% of the 127,606 drug addicts recorded between 2013 and 2015 by the National Anti-Drugs Agency.  

"The state with the highest number of drug addicts is Penang with 18,889 cases.

"According to race, the Malays recorded the highest with 100,240 drug addicts (78.54%) from the total cases during the period," he told Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (IND-Bandar Tun Razak) during Question Time Thursday.  

Of the total number of cases, 88,597 were new addicts, while 39,009 returned to their habit.  

Abdul Khalid asked the Home Ministry to reveal the number of drug addicts in the country and the measures taken to address the problem.  

Nur Jazlan said the Government had allocated a total of RM7.9mil from 2013 until last year for the rehabilitation and treatment of drug addicts.