Claims of drugs sold openly not a perception, says Tiong

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Dato Seri Tiong King Sing

Dato Seri Tiong King Sing

KUCHING: Bintulu MP Dato Seri Tiong King Sing has slammed State Narcotics chief Supt Lukas Aket for saying the claim he brought up in Parliament last Tuesday of drugs being sold openly in the streets of Bintulu as ‘only a perception’.

Lukas made the statement to The Star Online Friday in refuting the MP’s claim saying that the police had stepped up efforts to curb sale of drugs by conducting operations daily.

“How can he say it was a ‘perception’ and drugs sale in the street does not exist when I receive so many complaints

from people in Bintulu about pushers moving about freely in the town?” he said in a statement yesterday.

Tiong added that it was the residents’ worry over the easy availability of drugs in the town that led him to highlight the issue in parliament.

“I did not bring it up just for the sake of debate in parliament and certainly the people who approached me about the problem did not do so because they ‘perceive’ that drugs were sold openly.”

Tiong said the police must not bury their heads in the sand and deny that the drug menace in Bintulu had reached a critical level.

“The statistics disclosed by Supt Lukas in his statement proved my claim is not wrong – 97 people arrested for drugs related offences in the first 10 months of the year is proof of the seriousness of drugs addiction in Bintulu.

“I commend the police for their arrests and seizures of drugs but they must not underestimate the seriousness of the situation.”

Tiong also questioned the explanation by Lukas on the case of the packet of suspected drugs seized as evidence turning into flour leading to the release of a suspected drugs pusher.

“Was the suspect caught with the ‘flour’ or was the flour found by the roadside by the suspect?

“Why would anyone throw a packet of flour meant for making cakes before Gawai by the roadside?”

He urged that further investigation be made into the ‘flour case’.

The MP also disclosed drugs addiction among the youth in Bintulu cuts across the racial boundaries and some parents were so desperate that they begged him to send their children to rehabilitation centres as they could no longer control them.

“What is very worrying is that drugs addiction is no longer confined to the urban centres as pushers have been moving to the rural areas to expand their market.”

Tiong appealed for the cooperation between the police and the people to fight this growing social scourge.