KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — The Malaysian society is not ready to accept weed smoking as a legal activity, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today.
Labelling it a gateway drug, Khalid said decriminalising marijuana use would only lead Malaysians, especially the youth, to using harder drugs.
“In our view, it has not reached the time for us to be liberal. There are a lot of young Malaysians who misuse ganja. They also use it as (a) platform to go on to other more serious drugs.
“PDRM does not support and in fact opposes it being decriminalised,” he told reporters at a press conference in Bukit Aman today.
Khalid added that no religion tolerates drug use and said intoxication is something that should not be promoted.
“It is also illegal against religion. Not just Islam, I’m sure other religions also don’t allow intoxication,” he said.
The national police chief added, however, that if marijuana is to be used for its medical benefits, this must be done through proper regulation.
“If it is used as a medicine, it should be regulated. Not just anyone can take it, there must be controlled prescriptions from the doctors.
“Like morphine, it is used as a medicine but is under tight control. If it is true that ganja has medicinal properties then it should be properly executed,” Khalid said.
He was responding to a proposal made in the Youth Parliament earlier this month that asked for marijuana to be decriminalised.
The youths pointed out that it serves as a medicine in other countries and even countries that have dealings with Malaysia like the US tolerate the drug use.
