THE Prime Minister’s Department’s Legal Affairs Division is in the midst of studying the establishment of a council to review all criminal sentencing including drug-related sentencing in Malaysian legislation. 

Legal and Institutional Reform Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said said the council would provide guidelines and reduce imprisonment sentences by promoting more rehabilitation and restorative-based sentences across Malaysian criminal legislation. 

She said the division was also studying ways to overhaul the Offenders Compulsory Attendance Act 1954. 

“It is to promote imposition of community-based rehabilitation instead of imprisonment for offenders sentenced to imprisonment for three years and below, in particular for first-time offenders. 

“This could include minor drug offences, which make up 63% of prison inmates in Malaysia,” she said in a statement yesterday issued in conjunction with the meeting of the cabinet committee on eradicating drugs, which was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. 

Addressing overcrowding in prisons was a human rights priority for the Madani government, given the detrimental risks faced by inmates due to poor living conditions, Azalina said. 

“I hope to present the outcomes of the above efforts as a joint cabinet paper with the Home Ministry and the Ministry of Health by the next parliament sitting at the end of 2023,” she said. 

She said it was vital for the law and enforcement agencies to keep up with the times, especially regarding the sophisticated manufacturing of synthetic drugs and methods of abuse. 

“The existing Malaysian laws on drugs were made in the 1950s. At this juncture, the discretion of the judiciary is especially important in addressing drug traffickers separately from drug abusers, and for the latter, a case-by-case treatment such as whether the individual is a first-time user, etc. 

“The discretion of the judiciary is also vital in introducing rehabilitation options instead of sentences focussing solely on punishment,” she added. 

Understanding that drug dependency was a medical condition, Azalina said the government wished to revise its present approach to the problem of drug dependency. 

“We hope to also see the inclusion of medical intervention, treatment, and rehabilitation in addressing drug dependency,” she said. 

Yesterday, Zahid said the Home Ministry and the National Anti-Drug Agency had been given three months to coordinate efforts to devise effective programmes to curb drug problems. – Bernama, July 11, 2023.