I was away from Malaysia for a few weeks recently and was happy to be woken up in Richmond, Virginia by a message from a lawyer back home.
She shared with me that her former client Amiruddin @ Nadarajan Abdullah, also known as Dr Ganja, had suddenly escaped the gallows after spending years on death row.
“I am certain that the article you wrote and the public campaign have made a difference in saving his life,” she said.
The lawyer, Samantha Chong, was referring to ‘All Up In Smoke’, a column I penned for The Star in September 2018 upon hearing of the death sentence imposed upon engineer Muhammad Lukman Mohamad for possessing, processing, and distributing cannabis oil.
Lukman was originally sentenced to death on Aug 30, 2018, under the Dangerous Drugs Act for possession of 3.1 litres of cannabis oil, 279g of compressed cannabis and 1.4kg of substances containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
I was irate at the injustice, considering that much of the rest of the developed world was decriminalising and even legalising the sale of marijuana, particularly for use in medical applications, such as to counter nausea that is a side effect of chemotherapy, chronic pain, anxiety, inflammation, and insomnia.
Back then, I went on something of a crusade and contacted a number of Pakatan Harapan MPs over the matter and even got a minister - Dr Xavier Jayakumar - to raise the matter in the cabinet.
I was very relieved in 2021 when the Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat allowed Lukman’s appeal to set aside his conviction on two counts of drug trafficking.
In fact, Lukman thanked me personally saying that the column had provided him with some inspiration while on death row and I interviewed him a couple of months later.
Now, Amiruddin’s release comes after the High Court in Shah Alam amended the 16 charges against him for trafficking 77.48493kg and 14.647 litres of drugs to possession.
He also faced 18 counts of cultivating marijuana plants, four counts of possessing marijuana, and one for ingesting the drug.
Judge Julia Ibrahim handed down the nine-year jail sentence for the 39 charges and ordered the sentences to run concurrently starting from the date of his arrest and for his immediate release, as he had already served a third of his sentence.
‘War on drugs’ a failure
So, all this is good news, but the truth is that while most of the world is moving forward, Malaysia is still going in circles with its reforms on drug policy.
For the past few years, there have been discussions on legalising medical marijuana, decriminalising drug use for small quantities and abolishing the death penalty in relation to drug use.
While we have had a moratorium on the death penalty since 2017 and the unity government passed the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 on April 3, we still have a long way towards a comprehensive and holistic change in policy and recognising that the “war on drugs” that was introduced in the 1970s and 1980s has been a failure.
The truth is that most of the people who were punished for drug trafficking and usage are addicts and mules, not intermediaries and certainly not drug lords.
The truth is that our prisons are overcrowded, with a substantial number of cases in the prison system still being those who commit non-violent drug-related offences (this figure was 59 percent in 2018).
The truth is that addicts are still being treated like criminals, not sick people.
The truth is that a far more deadly and addictive drug like morphine has been controlled and incorporated into our healthcare system, yet we haven’t figured out how to deal with marijuana.
The truth is that our neighbour Thailand, while also clinging to outdated and harsh laws for many years, has suddenly done a 180-degree turn and turned cannabis and its related products into part of its booming tourism industry.
In fact, in the US, 38 out of 50 states have now decriminalised it and it seemed like marijuana dispensaries were on every other block when I walked around Manhattan earlier this month.
The truth is that despite the formation of the bipartisan Medical Cannabis Caucus, and advocacy groups like the Malaysian Awareness Society (Masa), our draconian drug laws have barely been touched.
I have spoken to many advocates over the years such as international public health policy expert Palani Narayanan, Halal Hemp founder Tengku Chanela Jamidah, and the late Masa president Yuuki Setsuna, and the pressure for our nation to reform is present, but it seems the resistance to change is stronger.
Meanwhile, there are pending cases such as that of a retired ambassador and his son who were arrested after more than 100 marijuana plants were found growing around their house in Janda Baik, Pahang.
In 2022, singer Yasin Sulaiman, who suffers from chronic bipolar disorder, was charged with trafficking cannabis.
In late 2021, a marijuana smoker who was a resident of a drug rehabilitation centre in Kubang Pasu, Kedah, succumbed to injuries after a warden foiled his escape attempt and allegedly beat him to death.
Why are we still going in circles instead of making fast and firm decisions to change a failed system? - Mkini
MARTIN VENGADESAN is associate editor at Malaysiakini.
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