AS of September this year, a total of 7,104 people have been caught for distributing drugs and for drug and substance abuse under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
Welfare, Community Well-Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said that according to reports from the State Narcotics Crime Investigation Department of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), 6,953 people were caught for the same offences in 2017 and 6,834 in 2018.
She added that 56 people had been arrested for drug trafficking this year while 46 people were caught for the offence in 2017. Meanwhile, 46 people were caught for the offence in 2018.
Fatimah revealed that the total amount of drugs seized this year was worth RM2.6 million.
As of September 2018, the drugs seized were 7,284.92g of syabu worth RM1 million; 2,281g of marijuana worth RM45,000; 5,847.81g of ketamine worth RM880,000; 5,833 Ecstasy pills and 4,195.35 pills in powder form (RM600,000) and 2,954 Nospan (RM3,000).
“As of September this year, a total of 26,977 ecstasy pills; 13,304g of ketum leaves; 2,240 of eramine 5 pills; 3,808g of ketamine and 14,160g of methamphetamine were also seized,” she said in her winding-speech yesterday.
She added that the latest seizure was 10kg of methamphetamine at the Kuching International Airport (KIA) on Oct 30.
Fatimah also revealed that under the Drug Addict (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983, through the AADK Sarawak operations, a total of 470 people tested positive for drugs in 2017, 694 in 2018 while 923 people tested positive for drugs as of August this year.
She said the enforcement operations by the police against drug trafficking and drug abuse activities had increased from 2,085 operations in 2017 to 2,734 in 2018. There had been 3,196 operations as of September this year.
“At the ministry level, as of Oct 30 this year, through the One Stop Committee on Addressing Drug and Substance Issues (OSC MIDS), 57 Drug and Substance Use Integrated Operation Issues (OBID) programmes had been carried out,” she disclosed.
Fatimah added that the state government had allocated an annual grant for the implementation of OBID programmes for 25 districts this year.
“To cover all districts in Sarawak, the ministry will request an annual allocation to expand the programme to 15 more districts by next year,” she said.
She added that the report showed that the GPS government was serious in addressing drug and substance abuse.
“The success of all these efforts is due to the strong collaboration and partnerships that we have established with various relevant agencies which have continuously supported our ministry in the war against drug and substance abuse,” she pointed out.
