Easy access to money boosts DRUGS abuse in Malaysia: ECSTASY MAKES A COMEBACK!

Malaysia’s emergence as a regional economic powerhouse has also caused a record rise in the seizure of the pricey illicit party drug, Ecstasy, which saw a seven-fold haul of over 700,000 pills last year, the biggest in the last decade, the United Nations reported today.

According to the United Nations’ Office of Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) report released today, 772,421 ecstasy pills, which cost a whopping US$19 (RM61) per pill, were seized in Malaysia in 2012, when the economy expanded 5.6 per cent.

“‘Ecstasy’ pills seizures increased significantly in 2012 and is the highest total reported in the past decade,” the UNODC said in its report titled “Patterns and Trends of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants and other Drugs: Challenges for Asia and the Pacific”.

US newspaper the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported drug experts as attributing the comeback of ecstasy — which is generally more expensive than methamphetamine, another stimulant drug — to economic expansion in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

“Ecstasy seizures in Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, with economic growth exceeding 6 per cent in recent years, reached 4.3 million pills, a nearly four-fold increase from the year earlier,” said WSJ, quoting the UNODC report.

Seizures of ecstasy in Malaysia multiplied more than 10 times from 60,713 pills in 2010 to 772,421 pills in 2012, according to UNODC.

Seizures of meth pills in the country also increased by 43 per cent from 364,909 in 2011 to 521,384 in 2012, while arrests related to meth pills almost tripled from 5,863 in 2011 to 16,818 last year.

Seizures of crystal meth, however, dropped 31 per cent from 1.2 tons in 2011 to 852 kg in 2012.

“Crystalline methamphetamine manufacture, trafficking and use remains the most significant drug threat in Malaysia,” said the UNODC.

“A large share of the crystalline methamphetamine trafficked to Malaysia originates from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Significant quantities of crystalline methamphetamine and ‘ecstasy’ are also manufactured domestically in clandestine laboratories using precursors and essential chemicals smuggled into the country or diverted from licit trade,” it added.

The UNODC observed that although heroin remains the primary drug used in Malaysia, amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are the drug of choice for new drug users and those arrested for the first time.

The top three drugs favoured by Malaysians last year were heroin, crystal meth and cannabis.

Transnational drug trafficking organisations also seem to be increasingly favouring Malaysia as both a destination and transit country for meth, said the UNODC.

The number of Iranians arrested for drug-related offences, however, was halved from 116 in 2011 to 52 last year.

“The decreasing number of Iranian drug couriers arrested may possibly be due to an increase in the smuggling of methamphetamine in crystalline and liquid form to Malaysia, possibly by sea cargo,” said the report.

“Moreover, recent indicators suggest that Iranian nationals are also involved in methamphetamine manufacture in Malaysia,” it added.

On a regional level, the UNODC noted that a whopping 227 million meth pills were seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2012, surging 59 per cent from 2011 and increasing more than seven times since 2008.

The number of ecstasy pills seized in the region also more than tripled to over 5.4 million pills last year from 2011.

“ATS have ranked among the top three drugs of use in all countries in the region since 2009,” said the report.

Malay Mail