The National Anti Drug Agency stated that drug addiction cases in the country have increased by 27 percent in the first six months of this year involving 118,820 addicts, compared to 93,534 cases reported for the same period last year.

The agency states that the increase is worrying as 65 percent of the cases involved youths and teenagers and it was discovered that over the last five years, the use of synthetic drugs were higher than organic drugs.

The agency disclosed that Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu recorded the highest ratio per 100,000 residents among the states while the state of Selangor recorded the highest number of drug addicts in Malaysia.

An Anti Drug Squad was launched by the agency since they found that most youth and teenagers had a lot of free time without engaging in constructive activities and therefore they got involved in the drug menace.

The role of the Anti Drug Squad was to use a changed approach in tackling the issue by ensuring that teenagers and youth participated in beneficial activities and the aim was to attract one million members to the squad.

So far there are 120,000 members in the Anti Drug Squad and the agency aims for the rate of drug addiction to be below 400 individuals per 100,000 residents in the country by 2025, compared with 426 recorded last year.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE