In the early 19th century, drug consumption, also known
as opium smoking was not considered harmful and there were no restriction or
taboos as to its usage. The first restriction on taking opium was held on 19 February
1925 but this doesn’t mean that people were fully restricted from consuming
opium as this restriction stated that those who want to consume opium have to
register their name to the government. In other words, registered opium smokers
still have the privileged to enjoy it.
A further restriction was imposed in 1934, as a result of a treaty
signed in Bangkok on the use of opium. Only those who had a doctor’s
recommendation were allowed to use it. At this time, opium abuses were amongst
men in their late fifties. When Malaysia first attained its independency, no
serious efforts were actually made to address drug abuse problem because the
nation was still young at the time. That was a brief history about drug consumption
in Malaysia when our nation was under British’s empire.
Previously, drug abuse and drug traffic was among men and it was
very rare to see women involved in such cases. The latest statistics showed
that the number of women involved in drug trafficking cases in the country is
on the rise, according to the Federal Narcotics Crime Investigation Department
(NCID) director Commander Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim.
Malaysia continues to be a transit country for drugs en
route to other destinations for international markets. As of 2010, there
are 792 Malaysians still detained for various drug offences in other countries while 969
foreigners were arrested in Malaysia. Lately,
the NCID focus is not on the male traffickers anymore but on the women. In
2011, a woman from Malaysia was nabbed in Thailand on drug related case while
from January to October last year, 7 women were arrested. A total of 274 Thai
nationals, this included 66 women, were nabbed in Malaysia in 2011 for drug
trafficking while in 2012 until September, 74 women from Thailand were caught
for similar offences in Malaysia. Early this year, a Nigerian student and two
Iranian sisters were caught for drug trafficking in Malaysia. Most of these
smugglers used Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as their transit
points for drug trafficking. They always changed and used different air routes
to do the business.
In my opinion, the lateness of further restriction made by the
nation after the liberty causes drug abuse issue to remain as the country main
threat, until today. As mentioned above, previously the use of drug was
considered harmless and anyone can consume it. The increases in the number of
woman in drug trafficking is related to the illegal human trafficking cases.
Those smugglers uses woman to do their business as they think that woman will
be less impeach by the police or the authorities. Sometimes, the business is
not according to the woman willingness but they are being force to do so. Other
reason is because the luxurious life for being a drug trafficking might
attracted confused woman to get involves in the business. Some woman may be
given a choice to choose either being a prostitute or drug trafficking by their
“master”. So instead of selling their body, they chose to do the dangerous job
as drug trafficker. The police at the immigration points should do a strict
checking to immigrant that comes to Malaysia, regardless their gender.
