Enforcement Status of the Poison Act 1952 Against Offences Related to Kratom (Mitragyna Speciosa Korth) Misuse in Malaysia

Authors

  • Samihah Khalil@Halim UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA, Malaysia
  • Siti Alida John Abdullah School of Government, UUM College of Law, Government and, International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia
  • Rusniah Ahmad School of Government, UUM College of Law, Government and, International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32890/uumjls2020.11.1.4

Keywords:

Enforcement, kratom (Mitragyna speciosa Korth), kratom offences, Poison Act, Malaysia

Abstract

Kratom story in Malaysia is a bit intricate. Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa Korth) or local name ketum is a local plant where ‘mitragynine’ (alkaloid in kratom leaves) is listed as psychotropic substances under the Malaysian Poison Act 1952. The law stated that any activities related to possessing, selling, using, transporting, processing, importing, exporting of kratom are considered illegal and can be prosecuted.  Interestingly, kratom trees are not illegal plant and no laws in Malaysia forbid the cultivation or presence of naturally growing kratom. On the prosecution side, the current laws do little to prosecute kratom addicts for rehabilitation due to no available kratom test kits which can assist the enforcement agency to arrest and prosecute kratom addicts. Therefore, the enforcement of law on kratom has been largely applied for transporting, processing and selling. Though the Poison Act cannot stop anyone who wants to plant or grow kratom there are land laws that prohibit the plantation of kratom on land specified for agriculture purpose, adding tricky situation to the present circumstances of kratom. In pharmacology, there is research and development demand for kratom, and demands from international pharmaceutical companies for kratom had created illegal rational economic exploitation of Malaysia’s kratom by individuals, so to speak resulting in more intricacies to existing complication. This paper intends to discuss the legal status of kratom in Malaysia which we believe is facing its cross-road. The paper uses the rational approach of economic and criminology arguments to establish kratom offences in the northern states of Malaysia, thus to offer a review to the current state-of-affair.  A police statistics and data on kratom offences are then presented to discuss current status and its implication.

Keywords: Enforcement, Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa Korth), kratom offences, Poison Act, Malaysia.

References

Badariah Sahamid. (2005). Jurisprudens dan teori undang-undang dalam konteks Malaysia. Petaling Jaya: Sweet & Maxwell Asia.

Beck, C., & McCue, C. (2009). Predictive policing: What can we learn from Wal-Mart and Amazon about fighting crime in a recession? Police Chief, 76(11), 18.

Becker, G. S. (1993). Nobel lecture: The economic way of looking at behavior. Journal of Political Economy, 101, 385–409. UUMJLS 11(1), Jan 2020 (75-93)

Chan, K. B., Pakian, C., & Rusyidah A. Rahim. (2005). Psychoactive plant abuse: The identification of mitragynine in ketum and in ketum preparations, Bulletin of Narcotics, LVII (1 and 2), 249–256.

Chambliss, W. J., & Hass, A. Y. (2012). Criminology: Connecting theory, research & practice. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Chittrakarn, S., Penjamras, P., & Keawpradub, N. (2012). Quantitative analysis of mitragynine, codeine, caffeine, chlorpheniramine and phenylephrine in a kratom (Mitragyna speciosa Korth.) cocktail using high-performance liquid chromatography. Forensic Science International, 217(1), 81–86.

Croall, H. (1998). Crime and society in Britain. London: Longman.

Henningfield, J. E, Fant, R.V., & Wang, D. W. (2018). The abuse potential of kratom according the 8 factors of the controlled substances act: Implications for regulation and research. Psychopharmacology, 235(2), 235: 573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4813-4.

Jacques, S., & Reynald, D. M. (2012). The offenders’’ oerspective on orevention: Guarding against victimization and law enforcement. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 49(2), 269-294.

John, P. (2013). New directions in public policy: Theories of policy change and variation reconsidered. International Conference on Public Policy, Grenoble. Retrieved from http://www. icpublicpolicy.org/IMG/pdf/panel_84_1_peter

Julia Black. (2002). Critical reflections of regulations. LSE: London.

Kamarudin, A., & Zoriah, A. (2012). Mitragyina speciosa used in the northern states of Malaysia: A cross sectional study. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 141, 445–450.

Wilson, J. Q., & Kelling, G. L. (1982) The police and neighbourhood safety “broken windows”. The Atlantic Monthly, 3, 29-38. Malaysia Poisons Act 1952 and Regulation (Act 366). Kuala Lumpur: ILBS.

Polinsky, A. M., & Shavell, S. (1997). On the disutility and discounting of imprisonment and the Theory of Deterrence. NBER Working Papers 6259. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

Polinsky, A. M. (2005). The theory of public enforcement of law, NER working papers 11780, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA. UUMJLS 11(1), Jan 2020 (75-93)

Prozialeck, W. C., Jateen, K. J., & Shridhar, V. A. (2012). Pharmacology of kratom: An emerging botanical agent with stimulant, analgesic and opioid-like effects. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 112(12), 792–799.

Richards, J. F. (2001). Opium and the British empire: The Royal Commisssion of 1895. Retrieved from http://www.drugpolicy. org/docuploads/ opium_indiapdf.

Robertson, I. (1989) Society: A brief introduction. New York: Worth Publishing.

Rosenbaum, C. D., Carreiro, S. P., & Babu, K. M. (2012). Here today, gone tomorrow … and back again? A review of herbal marijuana alternatives (K2, Spice), synthetic cathinones (bath salts), kratom, salvia divinorum, methoxemine, and piperazines. J. Med. Toxicol., 8(1), 15–32.

Samihah, K., Siti Alida, J. A., & Rusniah, A. (2018). Tumbuhan ketum di Malaysia: Prospek dan cabaran. Sintok: UUM Press.

Samihah, K., Siti Alida, J. A., & Rusniah, A. (2015). Youth and kratom abuse in Kedah and Perlis. Proceeding International Conference on Innovation and Sustainability.

Samihah, K., Siti Alida, J. A., & Rusniah, A. (2014). Report for AADK on misuse of kratom in Northern Malaysia: Issues and solution. Sintok: Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Siegel, L. J. (2006). Criminology: Theories, patterns, & typologies (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.

Suwanlert, S. (1975). A study of kratom eaters in Thailand. Bulletin on Narcotics, 27(3), 21–27. Swogger, M. T., Hart, E., Erowid, F., Erowid, E., Trabold, N., Yee, K., Parkhurst, K. A., Priddy,

B. M., & Walsh, Z. (2015). Experiences of kratom users: A qualitative qnalysis. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2015.1096434.

Tanguay, P. (2011). Kratom in Thailand: Decriminalisation and community control? Legislative Reform of Drug Policies, 13, 1–16.

Thuan, L. C. (1957). Addiction to mitragynine speciosa. Proceeding of Alumni Association, University of Malaya, pp. 322–324.

Walker, S. (1977). A critical history of police reform: The emergence of professionalism. Lexington, MT: Lexington Books.

Downloads

Published

30-01-2020

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2020): UUM Journal of Legal Studies (UUMJLS) Vol. 11(1), Jan 2020

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Khalil@Halim, S., John Abdullah, S. A., & Ahmad, R. (2020). Enforcement Status of the Poison Act 1952 Against Offences Related to Kratom (Mitragyna Speciosa Korth) Misuse in Malaysia. UUM Journal of Legal Studies, 11(1), 75-93. https://doi.org/10.32890/uumjls2020.11.1.4

Research impact

Harvested 2026-09-05
0 citations recorded so far

Counts differ between services because each indexes a different body of literature. None of them is the whole picture.

Identifiers DOI 10.32890/uumjls2020.11.1.4

Most read articles by the same author(s)