Change Malaysian public perception toward drug users - Researcher

KUALA LUMPUR – Despite recent modifications in the government's position, the general public still has an unfavourable view of drugs.

The Centre looked into the causes of this and called for the implementation of more sympathetic message techniques.

The Centre researcher Tham Jia Vern, during her introductory remarks at the introduction of the group’s Drug View Study Report today revealed that Malaysia's poor public perception of people who use drugs (PWUDs) was not surprising.

"It is where the people have unavoidably been affected for a long time by the authorities' decades-long battle on narcotics.

"This emotion, however, comes with ramifications that go far beyond name-calling; research on the impact of stigma against PWUDs shows that it greatly damages their recovery as well as their reintegration into society," she said.

Tham said Malaysia was not the only country with a history of taking a tough stance against drugs.

Ever since drugs were designated as the "Main Threat to Society" in 1983, the government's messaging effort had focused on cultivating adversarial rhetoric toward drugs through the adoption of fear tactics.

In a statement, she continued by saying that the current national drug policy maintained the same, punitive narrative about drug use, which tends to paint PWUDs as prospective criminals who would commit crimes to support their addiction.

“Such narratives are not limited to the realm of policy, they have long been stereotyped in media coverage of PWUD-related instances as prospective criminals or inherently socially unsatisfactory people.

“After former health minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad announced the Pakatan Harapan government's plan to decriminalise drug possession for personal use, our team examined 904 drug-related news articles between August 2019 and January 2020.

“The analysis revealed that the media's attention is mainly focused on the criminal aspect of drug-related issues.

She said that the group had found that 41 per cent of news reports concentrated on capture and arrest, 28 per cent were on law enforcement raids, and only seven per cent covered drug policy-related themes.

Additionally, despite the fact that drug use was a contributing factor to other crimes, about 21 per cent of all news reports prominently feature drug use, and 13 per cent of all news reports also featured the convict's prior drug charges, further framing and implying the audience an association between "drugs" and "crime."

“While it has been some time since our analysis was conducted, recent headlines suggest that our findings unfortunately still hold,” she said.

She proceeded by stating that policymakers now believe that PWUDs' portrayal in government and media messaging initiatives needs to change as they take more scientifically supported and therapeutic ways to address drug-related issues in Malaysia.

Beginning with the socioeconomic elements that influence drug usage, which the news media frequently ignored when covering drug-related stories, there was a need to be more astute.

A more comprehensive and positive approach to reporting on drug-related issues could alter how society perceives PWUDs.

Tham in a statement said that "as noted in the case of Canada, modifying the way the media portrays news by emphasising public health instead of crime viewpoints when reporting on drug cases, for example, can and does lead to adjustments in the public conversation regarding drugs and PWUDs."

When it comes to drugs and PWUDs, she thinks that eventually, people hear what they were told to hear.

It would undoubtedly take a lot of work to change how society as a whole views those PWUDs, but this was a significant and long necessary reform.

"However, until this changes, we should keep in mind that those PWUDs deserve empathy, not criticism,” Tham said.