Dzulkelfy said the ministry supports Persatuan Pengasih in its efforts to help drug addicts, citing the centre’s adoption of the biopsychosocial spiritual approach as an exemplary model.

Persatuan Pengasih is a rehabilitation centre founded and operated by former addicts.

“This approach is one of the community-level approaches that can assist the ministry’s efforts in strengthening promotion, prevention, and addiction treatment programmes, in fostering a Madani society to achieve well-being and happiness,” he said in a statement

Dzulkefly held a meeting with the association’s president, Hafizi Harun, on Thursday for an update on its current activities.

It was reported that the number of drug addicts had increased by 27% in the first six months of last year to 118,820 from 93,534 reported in the same period in 2022.

National anti-drugs agency (AADK) director-general Sutekno Ahmad Belon said this upward trend is worrying as more than half of the cases involved youths and teenagers.