In Kelantan, even 9-year-olds starting to take drugs

There has been an increase in the number of younger children being lured into taking drugs in Kelantan. (Bernama pic)

KOTA BHARU: The Kelantan National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK) warns that primary schoolchildren have become the latest target of drug dealers in the state.

AADK director Rohayu Ahmad said the trend began in 2015. He said there had been an increase in the number of younger children who are being lured into taking drugs and becoming addicts.

“Previously, only secondary school students were enticed, but for the last three years, we have seen even nine-year-olds starting to take drugs,” she said after opening the “Program Amanat Mufti Kepada Orang Kena Pengawasan” here yesterday.

Rohayu did not disclose the number of primary school pupils who were drug users or addicts, but she advised them to seek treatment at the Cure and Care Treatment Centre in Pengkalan Chepa.

She said among the factors for drug use among primary schoolchildren was their desire to try it and their ignorance of the effects of drug intake and addiction.

She said Kelantan, with 8,115 drug addicts, had the second highest number of addicts after Kedah.

Of the total, she said, 111 were female addicts who were influenced by their husbands or boyfriends, or family members who were also drug addicts.

She said Kelantan’s location near the Thai border also affected the drug addiction situation in the state. - FMT