By: Media and Corporate Communication Unit
KAJANG, January 14, 2025 – The National Anti-Drugs Agency (NADA) records a total of 79% of clients with a sustained recovery rate in 2024.
The Director-General of NADA, Dato’ Ruslin Jusoh, said that the rate exceeded the rate targeted by the agency’s Key Performance Indicator (KPI) which is 77%.
“A total of 17,652 clients have fulfilled the criteria of sustained recovery out of the 22,224 clients who had finished treatment in the community from January to December last year.
“The Mobile Recovery Treatment (MRT) had also successfully expanded to reach a total of 13,140 clients,” he stated during the NADA Director-General’s Address, here on Tuesday.
On the other hand, Dato’ Ruslin emphasized that NADA should focus on the implementation of the amendments to the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 for the year 2025, while also drafting an Anti-Drugs Communication Plan as part of the efforts to spread a clearer and up-to-date anti-drugs messages.
“NADA is also planning to strengthen the collaboration with stakeholders such as government and private agencies, psychiatrists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), educational institutions, as well as communities including the community leaders and families.
“We will also introduce a better-integrated rehabilitation programme, including psychological and social support for individuals undergoing recovery. Other than that, we need to be more innovative in addressing drug abuse issues in the implementation of prevention, rehabilitation treatment, and enforcement modules.
“One of them includes the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is widely applied in various sectors including healthcare, security, education, and many more,” he added.
While commenting on the easily obtained and highly abused flavoured vape liquids known as “mushroom”, Ruslin said that the “magic mushroom” is a psilocybin or a Methyl-dimethylbutanoate (MDMB) synthetic drug, which both belong under the First Schedule of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 thus requiring NADA’s intervention.
“We have conducted a study involving 50 cases last year. The addicts claimed that they had consumed ‘magic mushroom’ but the data from the Department of Chemistry revealed that it was not ‘magic mushroom’, but synthetic drugs that had been inserted in the vape liquids.
“The term ‘magic mushroom’ is a widely used term out there, but in reality, the studies had proven that is it indeed synthetic drugs,” he said.
