KUCHING: Drug addicts who repeat drug offences are reminded that they can be charged under Section 39C of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which provides for a five-year mandatory jail term and three lashes.
Sarawak Prisons superintendent, Supian Kamaruddin, revealed that most addicts were not aware of this section and last month alone, 12 prisoners were charged under it.
“They were shocked to learn about this Section and there are some who said that if they had known (about the Section), they would not abuse it (drugs).
“This Section scares them so much that some prisoners even want to commit suicide or harm themselves,” he said in a press conference on the One Stop Committee’s (OSC) monthly report on addressing substance abuse in February chaired by Community Wellbeing Assistant Minister Datuk Francis Harden at the Baitul Makmur II building today (Mar 19).
Regarding last month’s statistic on prisoners convicted in connection with drug offences, he pointed out that 102 prisoners were convicted and 94 were released.
Supian added that most of the prisoners were convicted under Section 15(1) of the Dangerous Drug Act 1952, which is drug positive urine and the second highest is under Section 12(2) of the same Act, which is possessing drugs.
“According to February’s statistics, 81 of them were charged with drug addiction offences, 18 for distributing drug offenses, and three for possessing and distributing drug offenses.
“And as of March this year, there are a total of 777 prisoners convicted in connection with drug offenses, equivalent to 21 percent,” he told.
