MOHD Saad Che May was addicted to heroin for more than 40 years, making repeated trips to jails and rehabilitation centres.

The reality of the situation hit him only when the rehab centres turned him away, largely due to his age and the severity of his addiction.

He turned to ketum as an alternative to kick his heroin habit. Ten years later, Saad is free from drug abuse.

The 65-year-old works as a muezzin at a surau in Bukit Mertajam, Penang. Locals call him Pak Lang.

He first became addicted to heroin at 20, after being introduced to the drug by close friends.

“I am ashamed but that is the truth. For 40 years, I was a heroin addict. I have been in and out of prisons and rehab centres,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Asked how ketum “cured” him, Saad said: “When I drink it (ketum), I don’t feel like taking drugs. Ketum is for medication.”

Besides numbing the urge to take drugs, he said, ketum also helps alleviate body pains due to withdrawals.

“When you stop taking heroin, your whole body is in pain. You are addicted to it, you need heroin. But when you take ketum, there is no more pain, no more addiction.

“Ketum is normal for me. There are no side effects.”

Saad is now a member of Persatuan Pencinta Herba Pulau Pinang (PPHPP), an organisation that conducts research, in collaboration with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), on ketum as an alternative to fight drug abuse.

PPHPP chairman Abdul Halim Iberahim said he started helping Saad kick the latter’s heroin addiction six years ago.

“For drug rehabilitation, they need to do as much rehab as they can to kill the feeling. At the early stage, we give a high dosage of ketum and then, we slowly reduce the amount.”

He said a hard-core addict like Saad needs at least six months to recover.

“USM has conducted research on drug addiction. We are working to prove that ketum is not dangerous,” he said at the ketum research centre in Penang.

PPHPP has 600 members and the group provides respondents for USM’s research.

Halim said the negative view of ketum stems from its misuse.

“We don’t recommend drinking ketum with other substances, just hot water.”

Banning the medicinal plant without properly understanding it will only cause more harm, he said, as ketum is now available in synthetic form, which is far more dangerous.

“If we criminalise it, there is synthetic ketum. We don’t know what it’s made of.

“No one has ever fallen sick by drinking ketum. There are a lot of benefits to it.”

There are 10 species of ketum in Malaysia, including “ketum jambu”, “urat merah”, “urat hijau”, “ekor kura”, “gajah” and “bali”.

The most beneficial varieties are “urat merah” and “urat hijau”, said Halim, adding that the highest-grade ketum comes from Perlis and Sungkai in Perak.

The two active components in ketum are mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, which act as a painkiller to treat trauma and opioid addiction.

In Malaysian ketum, these components are six times higher than in the plant found in Thailand and Indonesia.

Halim believes that with more research, ketum can potentially treat diabetes and cancer.

Ketum user Zainabudin Harun, 56, said many have been consuming it the wrong way by adding drugs into the drink to experience a “high”.

“Ketum addicts add cough syrup, mosquito repellent and other kinds of drugs into their drinks. This is why they are addicted to it.”

The florist revealed that she has been drinking ketum since she was 11, two to three glasses daily to stay healthy.

“I run this nursery by myself and I am always active. No chronic illness.

“People always tell me that when they have a headache, they take Panadol. What is Panadol? I have never seen it,” said the mother of three. – July 31, 2019.