Home Ministry reveals three most abused drugs

PETALING JAYA: Drug addiction has increased by nearly 30% over the previous year, and the top three most abused drugs are amphetamines, cannabis and opiates, says the Home Ministry.

Its deputy secretary-general (security) Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman said these were findings from statistics of arrests conducted by the police and the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK).

He said the police and AADK detected 118,820 drug addicts and abusers in the first half of this year – an increase of 27% from the previous year.

“They are receiving mandatory and voluntary treatment and rehabilitation at AADK, the Health Ministry or private drug rehabilitation facilities across the country,” said Abdul Halim, who was representing Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail at the Drug Addiction Science National Symposium yesterday.

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,” he said.

At the same time, Abdul Halim added, the Asean Drug Monitoring Report 2021 showed that Malaysia has 377 drug addicts for every 100,000 residents, which is the highest in the region.

“The Philippines has the lowest addiction rate of two people per 100,000 residents,” he said.

The report, he said, also showed Thailand recording the highest treatment for amphetamines, followed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore.

“Treatment for opiate abuse is the highest in Malaysia, followed by Myanmar and Thailand.

“As for cannabis, treatment for it is the highest in Thailand, followed by Malaysia and Indonesia,” he said.