KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail revealed today district of Pendang in Kedah has the highest proportion of individuals involved in substance abuse nationwide, accounting for almost one per cent of its population.

The home minister said Pendang’s figure came up to 1,333 out of 100,000 people in the data briefed to him by the NCID, evident of severe substance abuse amongst its populace.

“The national average is 432 out of 100,000 people and our target is to bring it below 400.

“Other districts with high numbers of substance abuse include those from the East Coast such as Dungun, Marang, Bachok, Machang, Besut and Kemaman,” he told a press conference at a special dialogue with the police held at Sime Darby Convention Centre here.

He said the figure was disclosed in a post-Cabinet meeting with the police’s Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID) yesterday.

Saifuddin said the data was “as credible and complete as it gets” since it was sourced from four different stakeholders: NCID, the Health Ministry, the National Anti-Drugs Agency and private drugs rehabilitation centres.

When asked if there were factors contributing to the high numbers of substance abuse in the aforementioned districts, Saifuddin conceded he was only able to make open-ended guesses.

“Give us more time to look into it but we have an idea now and we will deploy our enforcement agencies to focus on these areas for outreach programmes,” he said.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/08/22/home-minister-pendang-kedah-tops-list-of-district-with-highest-proportion-of-substance-abuse/147863