Activist Marina Mahathir said the government should support community groups instead of trying to do it themselves, as the approaches were different.

“They should provide funds to those groups with proven track records and monitor them to ensure they are using good approaches. Some NGOs use the same methods as the government too,” she said.

Recently, Pengasih president Ramli Samad said the country should take the NGO approach, which could be seen in the handling of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malaysia in the 1990s.

He added that rehabilitation and community support systems were better than punitive approaches in bringing cases of drug use under control.

PT Foundation chairman Hisham Hussein agreed with the call for NGOs to step in. For starters, he said, the government could consider allocating resources for these groups to handle cases.

He said the resources need not be in monetary form alone, but also in making the relevant technology and expertise available to these groups so they could better tackle the rising drug problem.

Hisham said more mental health specialists are also needed to deal with drug dependencies, such as methamphetamine or “ice”, which was on the rise.

He said the national anti-drugs agency also needs to reform to meet present demands and challenges, in keeping up with the rest of the world.

Universiti Malaya’s Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman said on Thursday that drug addiction cannot be solved by jail time.

She cited a study performed in Iran where active users underwent functional MRIs and were exposed to images of drug paraphernalia, which showed the physiological impact drug use can have on the areas of the brain responsible for cravings and urges.

As such, she said, addiction should be treated as a disease that requires medical attention and social support.