Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
KUCHING: Drug and substance abusers who received treatment and rehabilitation in Sarawak since 2018 numbered just 2,287 out of 19,534 cases, said Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
She said this was according to statistics of persons arrested between 2018 and November this year whose urine had tested positive.
“Out of 19,534 cases, only 2,287 individuals received treatment and underwent formal and informal rehabilitation under the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) and non-governmental organisations, One-Stop Centre For Addiction (Osca) and psychiatry.
“This translates to a 1:8 ratio which is higher than the 1:7 ratio at the global level as reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,” she said after chairing the first state-level Anti-Drug Action Council meeting for 2020, at a hotel here yesterday.
Fatimah informed a total of 583 cases involving 609 arrests relating to the enforcement of drug and substance abuse activities were recorded in the state last month.
“For the period of November 2020, a total of 159 are receiving treatment and undergoing rehabilitation at narcotics addiction rehabilitation centres (Puspen) by court order, and 17 are receiving voluntary treatment at the Cure and Care Clinic in Kuching run by AADK Sarawak.
“The new Puspen located at Puncak Borneo, which is expected to be operational in the near future, has the capacity for institutional treatment and rehabilitation of 250 clients at a time, or an additional capacity of 100 compared to the old Puspen that can accommodate 150 clients,” she said.
She also said there were four substance addicts who sought treatment last month at the Osca run by the state Health Department at Tudan health clinic in Miri.
From January to November this year, a total of 11,657 people sought treatment for substance addiction at various facilities under the state Health Department, she added.
“The challenge to date is access to treatment and rehabilitation for substance-dependent individuals and families. Therefore we need to immediately plan the options for solutions and set an action plan to address the issue of treatment and rehabilitation for substance abuse in Sarawak.
“Among these are to immediately move to the new Puspen at Jalan Puncak Borneo as well as to establish another Puspen in northern Sarawak.”
Fatimah also noted the need to increase the number of Osca services operated by the state Health Department, and also to create more community-based treatment and rehabilitation centres at the district
level such as a Community Development and Intervention Centre.
She said yesterday’s meeting had agreed that applications be submitted to the federal government on several matters that include building a new Puspen in Miri, setting up AADK in Kapit district, and establishing a permanent Magistrate’s Court in Kapit, Mukah, Sarikei, Betong and Serian so that prosecutions involving drug and substance abuse can be done quickly, accurately and efficiently.
Present at the meeting were AADK Sarawak director Wan Madihi Wan Salleh, Deputy Federal Secretary Norizan Jili, division Residents, and representatives
from relevant departments and agencies.
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