Cops call for drug laws to be updated

MELAKA: The police have proposed to the Home Ministry to amend or enact several acts related to penalties for drug-related offences in line with current trends for banned substances abuse in the country.

Bukit Aman Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the types of drugs widely used by addicts now are syabu and ecstasy pills, which used to be heroin before.

"Earlier, for heroin, 15g mandated a hanging sentence but for syabu and ecstasy pills it was 50g... so we want the weight for syabu to be reduced to 15g.

"This proposal was brought to the Home Ministry before being submitted to the Attorney General's Chambers for thorough scrutiny," he told reporters after the closing ceremony of the seminar on Community Social Issues: Situation, Challenges and Prevention in the Present Era’ at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka here on Sunday (June 12).

He also said apart from that, police were also listing banned chemicals used to produce new types of drugs such as syabu, ketamine, yaba and kuda pills.

So far in Malaysia, there are more than 60 banned chemicals listed used to produce new types of drugs, compared to over 900 chemicals banned overseas.

In another development, Ayob said the police, in collaboration with other enforcement agencies such as the Customs Department and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, would continue to beef up control at the country's borders to curb any increase in cannabis smuggling from Thailand following their government's decision to allow its citizens to plant marijuana effective June 9.

He said Thailand's decision was seen to have an impact on cannabis smuggling into the country as there were no more restrictions on the movement of the plant there, even though it was still banned in Malaysia.

"Indeed, the decision made by Thailand has caused a 'frenzy' on our part... maybe smugglers will be emboldened to move more cannabis into this country.

"Now there is no more limit to the movement of cannabis into the country... maybe everyone will wait at the border to sneak it into Malaysia and on Saturday alone, 860kg of cannabis smuggled in from Thailand was confiscated," he said.

Commenting on the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in the country with an alternative sentence subject to the court's discretion, he said it would not have a negative impact on the police's efforts to fight drug crimes.

On the contrary, enforcement operations would be further enhanced and apart from focusing on detaining drug lords, police would also change its strategy to detect drug syndicate leaders with the cooperation of enforcement agencies, he added. - Bernama