THE sheltered and staunchly religious environment of a tahfiz school did not stop Haziq, then a 10-year-old, from experimenting with drugs.

The syabu or methamphetamines his seniors gave him made him feel more energetic and alert, and it became easier to memorise the Quran. 

Enrolled at the tahfiz school in Kajang when he was eight, Haziq was put in a group of 16-year-olds when he turned 10. His seniors were supposed to mentor him and help him memorise the holy book.

“My friends took the pocket money my mother gave me and in return gave me ‘ice’ to try,” he recounted to The Malaysian Insight, using a street name for meth.

He was just pleased that they helped him when he felt tired and aided his memory.

“We would be fined and punished if we could not memorise five pages a day,” said Haziq, now 16.

His story is anecdotal evidence of findings by the Health Ministry in the 2017 Adolescent Health Survey released recently.

There were now 2½ times more secondary school pupils, in Form 1 to Form Five, using drugs compared with five years ago in 2012, the survey found.

The use of syabu among pupils also increased from 1% in 2012 to 2.4%, when the study was conducted March 26 to May 3, 2017 involving 30,000 pupils at 212 schools nationwide.

In the five years, marijuana use among secondary school pupils also saw a three-fold increase.

Overall, one to of every 25 pupils in secondary school used drugs.

Of that, 17% started at seven and 72% before 14.

Haziq said he tried to stop his meth dependency after his father found out. But the resolve waned and started to use syabu again, which also made his behaviour more aggressive.

He was 13 when he left the tahfiz school and returned to a home without his father, who was jailed for a misdemeanour, and a mother who could not discipline him.

“That was the first time I saw the world. My family were under pressure as my father was in jail. My mother couldn’t control me. That’s when I moved on to heroin.”

Haziq cleaned up after his mother was admitted to hospital over a heart attack. He went to a rehabilitation centre run by the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) six months ago and agreed to tell his story to raise awareness about drug abuse among teens.

Two other teens at AADK centres also told of similar paths.

Aiman, 18, comes from a broken home where his parents were divorced and remarried others. He doesn’t blame them, saying his drug use was because he made the wrong friends.

After being introduced to heroin at 12 by the older boys he hung out with, Aiman took up part-time jobs to support his habit.

“I would work after school or on weekends as a server at wedding functions or setting up the wedding dais and decorations for the bridal couple.

“If I had no money and there were no jobs, I stole things from supermarkets and re-sold them,” he said.

Asyraf, 17, said he took drugs at the technical skills college where he had studied cooking. It was nothing new to him, as he had already started sniffing glue at 13 and had tried syabu at 15.

All three youths said they regret their actions and look forward to graduating from the rehabilitation centre soon. – August 20, 2018.