A representative to the second session of Putrajaya’s Youth Parliament today urged the Federal Government to regulate the use and sale of marijuana in the country, instead of criminalising the drug entirely.
Muhamad Ridhwan Muhamad Rosli, a representative from Selangor who also heads the Youth Parliament’s sprituality and religious committee, said that the proposal was suggested to him by various youths, increasingly so in light of Malaysia’s ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
Several TPPA member nations, including to a limited extent the United States, have made marijuana consumption conditionally legal.
While stressing he wasn’t voicing his own opinions alone, Ridhwan added that many Malaysian youths he had spoken to don’t even regard marijuana as a full-blown narcotic substance.
“Hold on, hold on. I am merely expressing the views of the youths that I meet at the grassroots,” he said in Parliament today, according to The Malay Mail Online‘s Yiswaree Palansamy.
“They said ganja is legal in the US (United States) and Australia and these countries are part of the TPP.
“Therefore, we should follow suit and be on par with them so as not to be against the TPP,” he added.
Ridhwan also stressed that he did not personally want the Federal Government to legalise marijuana as a recreational drug, but merely to regulate its sale and use.
“If we supervise the use of ganja, perhaps the numbers could be reduced to nil.”
He cited statistics that showed only 8% of drug users are hooked on marijuana, while a stagtgering 60% are addicted to morphine and heroin, while another 30% are addicted to methamphetamines.
Ridhwan did not, however, disclose the source of those numbers.
