MALAYSIA'S generational war on drug abuse is faltering, but major reforms are in the works. The policies have proven ineffective, as drug addiction has seen an aggressive spike.
The latest statistics from the National Anti-Drugs Agency: addiction rose 27 per cent in the first six months of 2023 to 118,820 addicts from 93,534 in the same period last year.
The favoured drugs are synthetic, much more potent than organic drugs. New addicts are drawn to dangerous substances like heroin, morphine and ecstasy.
Only a minority are hooked on marijuana. Perhaps during tourism jaunts across the northern border, where pot in all forms is legal and commercially retailed.
Unsurprisingly Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu are the states with the highest ratio of drug abuse cases per 100,000 residents, while Selangor boasts the highest number of addicts.
This would suggest that states with heavy religious and moral rectitude are also the weakest in arresting drug abuse. The drug perversion hasn't changed in generations: peer influence and curiosity are top factors, complemented by too much free time sans productive activities, as one anti-drug campaigner puts it.
Another anathema to the drug war: last year, traffickers' assets worth RM55.9 million were confiscated, while RM5.3 million in properties were forfeited.
Also seized were 10,000kg of liquid drugs, ketum leaves and juice, and 20 ganja plants, with a street value of RM286 million, which translates into why criminals get into drug trafficking: the business is crazily lucrative.
About the only change in this mess are the reforms: the death penalty for drug trafficking is no longer mandatory. Judges have the discretion to impose lesser sentences on convicted traffickers.
Since drug abuse afflicts every new generation with gusto, what are our options?
The government is focusing on medical intervention, treatment and rehabilitation, while law enforcement needs to keep up with advancements in synthetic drug technology and methods of abuse. Moreover, the drug laws, created as far back as the 1950s, are outdated.
Here's a tidbit: minor drug offenders comprise 63 per cent of prison inmates, making it incumbent on the judiciary to separate drug traffickers from drug users in need of rehabilitation, not punitive sentences.
Any other options? Should we legalise marijuana like Thailand? Here's the irony: the Americans started this war in the early 1980s, egging other countries to follow suit.
Before you could say: "I wanna get high", the Yanks had legalised cannabis. Even their conservatives, once the bedrock of anti-marijuana campaigns, are major participants and investors in the US$13.2 billion industry.
For us? It seems unthinkable, given the national abhorrence to marijuana as a medicinal or recreational drug. But, there have been calls for legalisation. Certainly, if pot is legalised, the positive outcome would be that the statistics will drop and improve stupendously.
Otherwise, our war on drugs drags on against an upsurge of abusers and addicts, while its elimination seems pointless.