MACHANG: For over three decades, construction worker Jahar (not his real name) took around 100 methamphetamine pills a month.
That stopped when the 58-year-old was arrested in November.
"I started getting addicted (to drugs) when I was 25 years old," he said at the Machang Moral Rehabilitation Centre here yesterday.
Jahar said he would take the pills every day, and there were times he would swallow up to 10 pills in one go.
"I was even willing to spend RM1,000 on methamphetamine pills."
Yesterday, he and 68 other convicts were released under the Licensed Prisoner Release programme.
"I want to change. I have tried to quit the habit but I failed," he said, adding he has been jailed five times for drug-related offences.
Jahar, whose sentence ends in December, will restart his life as a free man working in Bachok.
"My advice to youth is to stay away from drugs, don't even try it, it will destroy your future."
Meanwhile, Machang Prisons deputy superintendent Mohd Sazeli Mohd Noor said those released under the programme were drug offenders aged 21 to 58.
Of the 68, 14 were released to their families, 24 were placed in transit homes, and the rest were released into the care of employers so they could work.
Sazeli said those released under the programme must adhere to the conditions set by the Prisons Department until the completion of their sentences in one to 10 months.