Drug Defendants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 Bill amendment in the final stage

By: Media Corporate Communication Unit

KUALA LUMPUR, May 7, 2024 – The Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) through the National Anti-Drugs Agency (NADA) is now in the final stage of amending the Drug Defendants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 to abolish the jail system to punish minor drugs offences.

This indirectly changes the method of punishment to a comprehensive drug treatment and rehabilitation programme.

The Minister, YB Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, said that the amendment process was carried out with the collaboration of multiple parties, especially NADA.

โ€œWe (MOHA) are currently harmonising the final phase. If everything goes smoothly, insya-Allah, we will present the amendment to the Drug Defendants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 in the upcoming Parliament session, and I believe it will be a catalyst of change,โ€ he said.

He said this while delivering the speech at the NADA Open Day 2024 Ceremony at the Narcotics Addiction Rehabilitation Centre (PUSPEN) in Sungai Besi, here, which Member of Bandar Tun Razak Parliament, YB Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, inaugurated.

According to Saifuddin Nasution, the amendment made to the act is to give second chances to addicts as well as to reduce the congestion in the 41 prisons throughout the country, especially for addicts found to have abused the prohibited substances.

โ€œWe have about 78,000 inmates in 41 of our prisons, and the data profiling depicts that the majority of their offences are drug-related, ranging from distribution to drug abuse, which are minor offences.

โ€œSo if we keep going in the same direction, the prisons will become more crowded and not conducive. Therefore, with the amendment, we hope to be able to decriminalise these minor offenders and place them into the rehabilitation centre instead,โ€

At the same time, he mentioned that the amendment would authorise drug rehabilitation officers to conduct urine screening on individuals and determine whether they are positive for drugs or not before they can be sent to treatment and rehabilitation programmes in institutions or communities.

Traditionally, the screening and determining of the test can only be done by medical officers.

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