National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) director-general Sutekno Ahmad Belon said this will allow the authorities to detain and treat ketum addicts, something the law does not currently provide for.

“We have no power to detain or treat them because ketum is not on the list that requires treatment (for its users). So, if we find people high on ketum, we let them go,” he told FMT.

“The best we can do is to coax them to come voluntarily to seek treatment for free.”

Sutekno said the law only states that it is an offence to possess ketum leaves or a ketum drink because it contains mitragynine, which is listed as a controlled substance under the Poisons Act.

He said AADK is working with the home ministry to add ketum to the list of addictive drugs, and this requires amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and the Poisons Act 1952.

According to him, about 20% of every 10,000 people seeking treatment from AADK – the agency refers to them as “clients” – have admitted to having been addicted to ketum. AADK has about 80,000 “clients”.

“They mix ketum with other drugs to amplify the ‘high’ because ketum is cheap and easily obtained,” he said.

Ketum has been in the news recently after it was revealed that the Cabinet has given its approval to allow the cultivation of hemp and ketum leaves for medicinal purposes.

Bukit Aman narcotics criminal investigation department director Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, however, has since called for caution, saying several factors need to be studied first, including the costs of treating addicts, which is about RM500 million a year.

Sutekno said AADK alone spends RM450 million a year and that the cost of treating addicts could be higher than RM500 million as this does not include treatment provided by the prisons department.

He said the only way to reduce treatment costs will be to reduce the number of addicts.