Wednesday, February 10, 2010

November 25, 2009 14:41 PM

Cottage Industry Scheme For Drug Rehab Centres

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- A scheme is to be introduced to enable the private sector assist the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) to set up cottage industries at the 28 narcotics addiction rehabilitation centres.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said on Wednesday the cottage industry at the centres of more than 800 acres would help the inmates earn an income and their products could be marketed as well.

Certain incentives would be given to the private sector, he said after chairing a meeting of the National Drug Action Council at Parliament House, here.

He said the participation of the private sector would encompass not only offer of jobs but also training and other forms of assistance, in the form of extending the corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, said today's meeting also agreed to appoint case managers for more effective supervision of drug addiction cases in the community, a task now mainly handled by the police.

"We want to appoint officers with expertise who can help manage cases. We believe the agency needs such resources. We will do this in stages. We can ask non-governmental organisations to help out as well," he said.

Muhyiddin also said the meeting agreed on the need to have medical officers and psychiatrists at the rehabilitation centres, sitting on a panel comprising local medical doctors.

He said the meeting also agreed that data must be compiled on drug abuse in the country according to categories of cases to give the actual picture of the drug addiction scenario.

This would help the AADK to draw up strategies and take remedial action to rehabilitate the addicts.

Muhyiddin said it was hoped that employers would exercise their corporate responsibility by employing fully rehabilitated addicts.

He also asked for the cooperation of the media to help step up the anti-drug campaign because the government did not want the people to assume that the drug problem had waned.

-- BERNAMA

We provide (subscription-based) 
news coverage in our Newswire service.