KUALA LUMPUR: Police said a thorough study on the pros and cons of the cultivation of the ketum plant should be carried out before it is allowed to be turned into an industry.
Federal police narcotics crimes investigations department director commissioner Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said today that it is known that ketum has psychoactive properties but there have only been pre-clinical studies conducted on it to date .
He said while many have touted it as a money-making industry claiming it can draw some RM180 million annually, it is critical to ascertain if it benefits the nation.
Ayob Khan said that students known to use ketum as a “starter drug” often end up “graduating” to harder drugs.
He said there are 130 drug addicts in the country of which about 36,000 of them are in government rehabilitation centres.
Ayob Khan said the cost of feeding the drug addicts in rehabilitation daily is RM45 each and this amounts to over half a billion ringgit annually.
“This has to also be looked into. For now there are no government rehabilitation programmes for ketum users. Only private rehab centres have this. Who will bear the costs? The families of the addicts? Nevertheless, we will wait for the government’s outcome on this and we will adhere to any decision made by it,“ he said.