Malaysia's drug problem could be worse than expected, with the number of addicts believed to be higher than official figures.
It is estimated that there could be almost a million drug addicts in the country up to last year, with 86 per cent of them yet to be identified by the authorities.
National Anti-Drugs Agency (Nada) director-general Sutekno Ahmad Belon said officially, there were 137,176 drug addicts (0.4 per cent of the population) seeking treatment from Nada (which was under the Home Ministry), the Health Ministry and private rehabilitation centres.
The figure marked an 11 per cent increase from the previous year.
It also included the number of addicts arrested by the police.
Sutekno, however, believed that the total did not reflect the situation on the ground due to disruptions in tracing efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic era.
"The years 2020 and 2021 were marked by the Movement Control Order (MCO).
"So while the numbers look as if they had dropped, it doesn't reflect the actual situation as we faced many restrictions (in tracing the addicts).
"And now, we can see an 11 per cent increase following heightened active detection.
"In 2020, there were 420 addicts per 100,000 people in 2020, an increase from 377 addicts per 100,000 people the year before," he said.
But he added that the figure represented only the addicts whom the agency managed to detect.
Sutekno believed that there could be even more addicts out there.
He said based on the World Drug Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime last year, for every eight addicts, only one was seeking treatment.
"Based on that formula, in 2022, on top of the total 137,176 addicts, we still have to find the extra seven addicts per each one we have. This is the actual situation," he said.
On why some addicts refused treatment, he said it could be due to a variety of factors, including shame, misunderstanding and financial constraints.
He said apart from collaborations with other enforcement agencies, Nada was also engaging community leaders to track down these addicts.
Nada, he said, was liaising with village headmen and other community leaders, besides conducting school and workplace visits.
He said the agency was inspired by how the Health Ministry conducted its Covid-19 contact tracing.
"We thought to ourselves, why can't we do the same?
"We are hoping that our actual number is not as huge as the estimated figure (almost a million), but we have to try and trace them," he said,
With this, he hoped that the addicts would voluntarily come out for treatment with support from their family members. Additional reporting by Fuad Nizam