Punishment or Rehabilitation for Malaysia’s Drug Problem?

Talkback · Jul 23, 2026 · 1h 23m

To tackle increasing abuse rates, Kelantan police have introduced a new daily KPI requiring station chiefs to make at least one drug-related arrest every single day. But with state prisons already operating at double their capacity and recent reports of police extortion emerging, many are questioning whether a quota-driven, arrest-first model actually makes communities safer.

We are joined by Dr Sangeeth Kaur, Co-Chair of the Expert Advisory Group on Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation in East and Southeast Asia at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to examine what the global…