Dr Sangeeth Kaur, clinical research coordinator at the Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (Ceria), said overcrowding in prisons also had an adverse medical impact, with many suffering from infectious diseases like tuberculosis.
She said that instead of weaning drug users from their habit, they were expected to go cold turkey in prison.
This only exacerbated their condition or caused other medical side effects.
“We must look at drug trends and new modalities of treatment. Drug policy in this country must be more comprehensive to replace convictions with health referrals,” she said at an Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (Adpan) conference here today.
She said 60% of prisoners now consisted of those convicted for non-violent minor drug offences.
The former director of the Centre for Drug Research at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Vicknasingam Kasinather, said the incarcerated often relapsed after they were released.
“Based on a study, more than half start using drugs again after six months.
“Clearly, this ‘method’ (of jailing drug offenders) isn’t working,” he said.
Vicknasingam said more people were being arrested under Section 15(1) as opposed to Section 3(1) Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983.
“It is almost a 10-fold increase in the last six years. If the laws were to be changed overnight (to allow treatment instead of jail), Malaysian prisons would become empty,” he said.
He also said the cost of providing medical intervention to drug offenders compared to locking them up would be much less.
“It costs about RM20,690 a year to keep a person in prison while a community supervision programme would only cost about RM5,300,” he said.
Lawyer Ahmad Rashid Ismail said those arrested were usually from low-income backgrounds with little access to education.
“Convicted individuals should get treatment and be able to have a second lease on life,” he said.
This would reduce overcrowding in prisons, save money and result in a higher success rate of treating drug offenders.
On the mandatory death sentence for certain drug offences, Ahmad said this did not deter trafficking and should be abolished.