THURSDAY-20TH DECEMBER 2007-Students’ involvement in drug abuse worrying

Students’ involvement in drug abuse worrying
KOTA KINABALU: More and more youths especially students are getting involved in drug activities and the trend is worrying, Assistant Minister of Community Development and Consumer Affairs Jornah Mozihim said. Statistics have revealed that more and more students are involved in social ills including drug abuse, Jornah said when closing PEMADAM’s Anti-Dadah prevention programme held at the Kota Kinabalu community centre yesterday. “Drug abuse involving the hardcore addicts and relapse addicts are affecting our society and statistics show that children as young as seven years old were involved,” she said. Jornah said the younger generation are the country’s future leaders and must be guided to contribute positively towards nation building. According to her, there are many contributing factors to the problem, one of which is parental neglect of children. “As a parent, we cannot assume that by giving our children material satisfaction is enough as they need moral support,” she said. Parents, she added, must provide a safe and conducive environment for their children to grow up in so that they are not swayed or tempted by social ills. Children must be showered with love and care so that they will grow up into responsible and caring individuals, she added. Meanwhile, National Drug Agency’s officer Aza Savelyeva Ramlee disclosed that Sabah has recorded the highest number of female drug addicts in the country and that 80 percent of the Bachok rehabilitation centre inmates were from here. Aza Savelyeva also said the number of female drug addicts in Malaysia kept increasing and existing rehabilitation centres are having problems accommodating them. “To ease the congestion in the existing centres, a new one for women will be built in Papar in 2008,” she said. This year’s statistics showed that most of the drug addicts in Sabah were picked up from Sembulan, Tanjung Aru, Kinarut, Luyang and Penampang. Kota Kinabalu has the highest number of people involved in drug abuse followed by Sandakan.