Alarm as drug pushers infiltrate Sarawak schools
We need more enforcement to deal with the drug dealers and pushers in schools, says Sarawak minister Fatimah Abdullah.
KUCHING: Drug dealers are infiltrating schools, using school children as drug pushers as they have found a new steady source of income.
The rising problem was highlighted last week by the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK) when it reported that 825 secondary school students had tested positive for drugs in the first three months of this year alone.
Drug tests were conducted on 29,583 students nationwide from January to March.
“As far as the drug dealers are concerned, they do it because they know there is money there,” said Sarawak state Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Fatimah Abdullah.
“They know the children have access to money from their parents. And because of their young age, the drug dealers are also assured of a long-term source of income.
“They’re thinking, ‘I can do business with them for a long, long time’.”
Yesterday, the Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) expressed concern about the infiltration of drug dealers into schools and had called on the authorities to act.
STU president Jisin Nyud also lamented that teachers were generally untrained to face such situations and called for more enforcement.
“The whole drug activity is a game that involves dangerous people, which is beyond parents’ and teachers’ control.
“Due to the risk that parents and teachers are facing, AADK and the police should do more and be more aggressive in reducing or curbing this problem,” Jisin had said.
Fatimah said today effective measures would require the co-operation of the government, the parents, the teachers, the students and the police.
She added that a more holistic approach is needed to curb the problem, which included government advocacy programmes to raise awareness of the issue.
“Rehabilitation of the drug addicts is also important, but we cannot just focus on rehabilitation. Or just the advocacy part. We need enforcement to deal with the drug dealers and the pushers,” Fatimah said.
“We always hear about the drug addicts being caught. But what about the pushers? What about the ones who are selling the drugs?”
Fatimah said it was particularly damaging that students are now being targeted as clients and as pushers.
“We know that once our students are involved, they will lose all focus on their education.
“Once they’re hooked, it will lead to other problems, crimes and so on that affect society’s well-being. It’ll be very hard to rehabilitate students,” Fatimah said.
Sarawak Malaysian Drug Prevention Association (Pemadam) chairman, Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah had said in February that drug abuse cases had been detected in secondary schools in Kuching, Bintulu, Limbang, Lawas, Pusa and Beladin.
Karim, who is also a state assistant minister, said most of the incidents in Sarawak schools were related to substance abuse such as sniffing glue and misusing prescription drugs like Nospan, a prescription drug used for the treatment of cough and cold.
Nospan is classified under the Poisons Act and not under the Dangerous Drugs Act. The most abused drug in Sarawak is syabu or crystal methamphetamine.
“We are dealing with people who look at drugs as a big business,” Fatimah said.
“They will resort to a lot of methods and measures to get what they want, to achieve what they want to achieve.
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“We need to work together, only then can we be strong. We can’t be complacent because for those who are involved in the drug business, it’s big money for them.”