KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — The government tabled the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) (Amendment) Bill 2024 for the first reading earlier this month, in a move experts had hoped would decriminalise drug use and treat addiction as a health issue.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution has also dubbed the Bill as a “decriminalisation” law ahead of the tabling, calling it the result of “deep” engagement with leading medical and drug policy specialists.

The move followed the direction of dozens of countries that have decriminalised illegal substance use and small possession with relative success. Saifuddin, echoing his predecessors, suggested decriminalisation was the way forward, citing it as a necessary step to solve prison overcrowding among others.

But the Bill tabled met with pushback, however, leading the government to withdraw it for review.

Ahead of its reintroduction today, Malay Mail explains key issues behind the Bill.

What is the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act?

The Drug Dependant (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 outlines all matters related to what the government calls “rehabilitation” of people who use drugs.

The Act specifies the powers of the agency that oversees rehabilitation, the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK), and the offences that would compel a person to undergo rehabilitation, usually through forced admission into state-operated rehabilitation centres.

Why amend it?

Past administrations, like most of regional peers, believed punishment was the best way to quash drug use and supply.

But despite the country’s tough drug laws, including the death penalty for trafficking and imprisonment for use and possession, the flow of illicit narcotics into the country (or domestic manufacturing) have not decreased while demand have also remained largely unchanged over several decades.

This has resulted, among others, in prison overcrowding. Over 60 per cent of the country’s prisons today are occupied by those convicted for use of and minor possession of narcotics. Experts who study the effects of incarceration for minor drug offences found no correlation between imprisonment and treating substance use disorder.

Medical experts have also pushed for drug use and addiction to be treated as a medical issue rather than criminal.

Why the controversy, then?

The same experts expressed surprise with the Bill, saying it still favoured punishment over decriminalisation and harm reduction. Decriminalisation means diverting cases of substance use away from the criminal legal system and into the health system.

Hayat, a non-governmental organisation that campaigns against the death penalty and works closely with families harmed by the country’s drug laws, noted the amendments were not accompanied by changes to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the primary law applied for cases of drug use and possession.

This ultimately meant that the same cases could result in imprisonment and fines.

The amendments also do not clearly define dependents and “misusers” despite prescribing a different set of “treatment” and rehabilitation programmes for each category, which could cause first-time offenders to be incorrectly treated as dependents rather than the lighter act of misuse.

Hayat also noted that the amendments do not clearly specify who is qualified to diagnose and prescribe treatments beyond calling them “rehabilitation officers”, or how these would be incorporated into existing rehabilitation programmes in AADK-operated facilities.

Why might this matter to you?

Because some experts believe the amendment could put taxpayers back to square one, which is inordinate public spending on programmes have been shown to be the least effective at addressing the incidence of drug use and dependence.

“Holding one person in prison costs RM40 daily. If this Bill passes as is, taxpayers’ money would still need to pay the same RM40, and more to go to welfare due to people’s loss of employment and arbitrary definitions of ‘treatment needs’,” said Hayat lead researcher, Jia Vern Tham.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/07/18/what-you-should-know-about-putrajayas-planned-amendments-to-its-drug-dependence-law/144090