Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Universiti Malaya, said the new policy should not call for mandatory rehabilitation, as that would defeat its purpose.
She hoped that there would be a shift away from mandatory punitive detention to a more voluntary and supportive model of treatment, care and support that was evidence-based.
“Certainly the money saved from not putting drug abusers into prison would be millions of ringgit. A lot of money can be channelled to health and social support programmes,” she said.
“We hope in crafting these new laws the government will look at experiences from around the world where it has worked; what laws need to be amended to allow for these new ways to prevent and deal with drug use,” she told FMT.
The new policy was announced by home minister Hamzah Zainudin recently. He said the move away from jail terms would be contained in a proposed new law on drug abuse to be enacted later this year.
Adeeba said the government could learn from Portugal where drug use was decriminalised in 2001. Its rehabilitation programmes had led to reductions in drug abuse and drug-related deaths.
Ramli Abd Samad, president of rehabilitation organisation Persatuan Pengasih Malaysia, said the government needs to prepare for all those who could be released from jail after the change in law.
“The government must look at community-based support for drug users and provide funding to existing centres that can help. If they don’t consider this, there are risks involved with putting addicts back on the street without proper support. They could influence others to use, and that would increase demand and thus supply,” he said.
He said he looks forward to working with the government and other organisations in order to keep minor offenders out of jail, as the prison system does more harm than good.
“These people are stigmatised and traumatised by the prison system and on top of that they have to carry a criminal record for their whole life, which makes it hard to work. Once they’re in this vicious cycle, doing drugs, being incarcerated, and potentially reoffending, they have a lot of trouble building a new life.”
Adeeba, who is also president of the International AIDS Society, said there must be a demarcation between addicts and users, as they don’t require the same resources and must be helped in different ways.
She said the National Anti-Drugs Agency had a rich pool of counsellors. “In 2010, we had cure and care centres that were doing very well in moving from mandatory punitive detention to a much more voluntary supportive way. So there are the skills within the agency,” she said.