Rahman, 50, is currently undergoing treatment at the Narcotics Addiction Rehabilitation Centre (Puspen) here due to drug addiction.
He stressed that anybody can fall victim to drugs regardless of their academic backgrounds, be it a teacher or a professor.
“If we choose wrongly, we will be trapped by addiction and recovering is hard without help.
“Before this, not many knew of my secret (my involvement with drugs). I have known drugs since I was 25, while still studying,” he told Bernama.
He said he regretted that he did not “walk the talk” when he advised his students to stay away from such substances when he himself had been addicted to them for years.
Rahman, who was detained at Puspen last November, occasionally shed tears, causing the interview to be stopped several times.
He said before he was brought to Puspen, he was only given warnings by the National Anti-Drug Agency. However, after several months of failing to register, he was arrested in the end.
According to Rahman, his constant craving for methamphetamine, erimin 5 and horse pills caused him to forget about getting married or starting a family.
“My behaviour and actions did not reflect that of a drug addict.
“It was just that my salary would quickly run out because drugs became a necessity. Every month, I would spend thousands.
“If I could go back in time, I would not touch the stuff,” said Rahman, who was expelled from work in 2019 after not attending school for a few months due his unhappiness over his transfer to another school.
Rahman, who is the first child out of eight siblings, admitted that his involvement in drugs was not due to family problems or the lack of love, but because he picked the wrong friends.
“It was not because I was not happy with my family. I wanted to find joy outside. I befriended the wrong people.
“Drugs influenced my soul so much that I did not heed my mother’s tears or the family’s pleas.”
He said Puspen had various effective recovery programmes that were helping him to take his mind off drugs.
He plans to continue participating in such programmes even after his release.