A. Patterns of drug use

The most commonly used drug is heroin (65 per cent of the drug user population in 1996), (Table 4.1) followed by cannabis (17.7 per cent), morphine (14.7 per cent), psychotropic substances (1.4 per cent) and opium (0.3 per cent) (Narcotics Report, 1996).

In a study undertaken in 1994, it was estimated that 50 per cent of drug users preferred heroin, 15 to 20 per cent of whom injected. The street purity of heroin is estimated to be between 2 and 25 per cent. This is thought by some to reflect the “success” of street interdiction activity by police. However, it has been suggested that this interdiction activity may also have been responsible, at least in part, for a higher incidence of injecting since this method of drug administration provides for a more cost-effective and better drug effect than sniffing, snorting or smoking the drug.

The use of amphetamine-type stimulants has emerged more recently in Kuala Lumpur and appears to be on the increase. Cocaine and MDMA (“ecstasy”) were seized for the first time in 1996. Twenty-three cases of methamphetamine use were detected in that year. The injection of amphetamine-type stimulants mixed with heroin has also been increasingly reported.

Malays represent the largest proportion of drug users by ethnic origin (76.9 per cent), followed by Indian (9.5 per cent) and Chinese (9.4 per cent) Malaysians.

Table 4.1 Types of drug addiction: 1988-1996

¹ include 'ecstasy', Valium, etc.

The Narcotics Report (1996) notes that 98.7 per cent of those arrested for drug offences during the previous year were male.