Malaysia plans to decriminalize drug use to battle addiction

S.J.B.

S.J.B.

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Malaysia plans to decriminalize drug use to battle addiction
AP News
June 28th, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s government plans to drop criminal penalties for the possession and use of drugs in small quantities to battle addiction, but stressed the move is not akin to legalizing narcotics.

Malaysia has one of the world’s harshest penalties for drug possession. Anyone found with 200 grams (7.05 ounces) of cannabis, 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of opium, 40 grams (1.41 ounces) of cocaine, and 15 grams (0.53 ounces) of heroin or morphine face being charged with drug trafficking, which carries the death penalty.

More than 1,200 prisoners are on death row, most of them convicted of drug crimes.

Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said in a statement Thursday that the proposal for the decriminalization of drug addiction will be a significant game changer. He said drug addiction is a complex, relapsing medical condition and throwing an addict into jail will not cure them.

“Drug decriminalization will indeed be a critical next step toward achieving a rational drug policy that puts science and public health before punishment and incarceration,” Dzulkefly said. “An addict shall be treated as a patient, not as a criminal, whose addiction is a disease we would like to cure.”
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Wow I REALLY hope this happens and while it obviously hasn't happened yet and there's no guarantee it will, I'm AMAZED it's something this pretty much 3rd world draconian country is even considering (no offense to anyone from there, but I'll explain why I feel this way).

I'm not easily bothered by movies, in fact, I love horror movies and all that, and pretty much the one and ONLY movie I can't watch again isn't even a horror movie, it's Return to Paradise with Joachim Phoneix and Vince Vaughn where Phoenix is a perfectly innocent guy who is hung because he had a lot of hash in his possession.

Knowing they ACTUALLY DO THAT THERE really bothered me and I had a hard time watching the scene at the end where he is hung.

I'm not very political, but the legalization/decriminlization of drugs is one of my strongest opinions, and if even Malaysia is considering decriminalizing of small possessions then maybe our world really is changing for the better, though it can't come soon enough, and they did point out that they'll still be arresting dealers (stupid), but still, this is impressive, especially in a part of the world that includes the Phillipines where Dutuerte is in power and executing drug dealers (I think we need to overthrow him NOW...)
 
Didn't Malaysia until very recently crow about their negligible drugs use rate? I guess someone was cooking those books. Do Malaysia and Singapore still behead drug dealers or push them out of windows and give simple possession folks something like 12 whacks with a rattan cane?
 
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