Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has raised alarm over the spread of drug addiction into primary schools, revealing that even pupils as young as 10 have been affected. He said traffickers are using increasingly “insidious” tactics, including offering free sweets laced with drugs to lure children.
“I’ve already held discussions with the Education Ministry and preschool institutions on how to curb this problem. Solving it requires the combined efforts of teachers, parents and the community,” said Zahid, who also chairs the Cabinet Committee on Anti-Drugs, in a recent interview with Bernama.
The government, he said, is rolling out a series of measures to tackle the wider drug crisis, from adopting more effective enforcement methods to strengthening prevention and rehabilitation programmes. Enforcement agencies such as the National Anti-Drugs Agency must deploy “more creative strategies,” especially in intercepting drug smuggling and monitoring new trends like narcotics hidden in courier packages.
“Traffickers often disguise drugs as ordinary online-shopping parcels. Our enforcement and rehabilitation bodies need to outthink them,” he stressed.
Zahid noted that Malaysia’s drug problem cuts across all races, with Kelantan, Terengganu, Perlis and Kedah recording the highest addiction rates. “This is truly a national problem,” he said, pointing out that large-scale trafficking is dominated by Chinese syndicates, organised distribution by Indian groups, and retail-level sales mainly by Malays.
According to official data, the number of drug users surged 32.5% in 2024 compared to the previous year — from 436 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 586 per 100,000 in 2024. As of June this year, the rate stands at 396 per 100,000.
To strengthen accountability in enforcement, rehabilitation and prevention, the National Anti-Drugs Agency is now drafting a 2026–2030 strategic plan aligned with the Home Ministry’s annual key performance indicators and building on the 2020–2025 plan.
Reflecting on his previous stint as Home Minister, Zahid cited the success of a prison retraining programme that cut the national inmate population from 78,000 to 42,000. “Prisons shouldn’t just be places of punishment but centres of correction,” he said. The initiative generated RM35 million in sales from inmate-run economic activities and slashed recidivism from 48% to just 2.6%.
“This experience proves that with innovative thinking, skills training and economic opportunities, drug and related crime problems can be effectively addressed,” Zahid said.
