In a shocking admission, the Malaysian police chief said there are too many addicts in the police force and that this does not help fight drug proliferation in Malaysia.
Reuters yesterday quoted the police chief Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador adding that there is an increase in substance abuse.
“We can see the number of addicts doubling,” Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador told reporters.
“Not only among ordinary people but among my own men. Every week we have surfaced, arrested our own men high on meth, shabu*, and all this.”
(* -a slang term for the drug methamphetamine)
The police chief said methamphetamine is emerging as the main culprit because the country is a key transit for the drug.
Much of the drugs come from neighbouring Myanmar.
The government is also moving towards the removal of penalties against drug possession for personal use.
Malaysia’s Minister of Health Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said last month decriminalisation is the “removal of criminal penalties for possessing and using a small number of drugs for personal use, as opposed to those who are involved in trafficking of drugs”.
Nevertheless, drug trafficking will continue to remain a crime.
Two weeks ago, the police seized 23kg of shabu worth RM1.17 million and arrested a 34-year-old suspected trafficker. The police said it busted three drug-trafficking rings at the same time.
The seizure of a Walther CP88 pistol along with eight bullets from a condominium unit belonging to the suspects, two Iranian men, who have a taste for luxury.
Both men tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (a marijuana-related compound), and they have been remanded until July 26.
Jewellery and vehicles worth RM514,953 were also seized while in another stint a 24-year-old Vietnamese woman and a 29-year-old Malaysian man were detained over 19g of heroin.
Subsequent raids led police to a condominium in Cheras where 2.19kg of ecstasy powder and 6g of ketamine with a street value of RM221,220. /TISG