According to the Home Ministry, drug addiction has increased by nearly 30% from the previous year, with the top three most abused drugs being amphetamines, cannabis, and opiates. The Deputy Secretary-General (Security) of the ministry, Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman, revealed these findings based on statistics from arrests conducted by the police and the national anti-drugs agency. In the first half of this year, the police and AADK detected 118,820 drug addicts and abusers, marking a 27% increase compared to the previous year.
Abdul Halim stated that those affected are receiving mandatory and voluntary treatment and rehabilitation at various facilities, including AADK and the Ministry of Health. Based on the figures, amphetamines were found to be the most abused drug at 69.9%, followed by opiates at 25.7%, and cannabis at 2.8%. Additionally, there has been a more than 100% increase in the consumption of drugs under the psychotropic pills category, such as benzodiazepine, erimin 5, and dormicum.
Malaysia has the highest number of drug addicts in the region, with 377 addicts for every 100,000 residents, according to the Asean Drug Monitoring report 2021. This is significantly higher compared to the Philippines, which has the lowest addiction rate at two people per 100,000 residents. The report also highlighted that Thailand has the highest treatment rates for amphetamines, followed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, and Singapore. As for opiate abuse, Malaysia leads, followed by Myanmar and Thailand. On the other hand, Thailand has the highest treatment rates for cannabis, followed by Malaysia and Indonesia.
