Interior Ministry admits to prison drug problem

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Niem Chheng

In what one commentator described as “a bold step”, the Interior Ministry’s prisons department has seemingly admitted it has a drug problem, and last week sent a letter requesting the Health Ministry’s assistance in tackling it.

Prisons department operations director Be Tealeng said yesterday that of the 18,800 people currently in Cambodia’s prison system 5,650, nearly a third, are doing time for drug-use charges. The notorious Prey Sar prison has the highest number of substance abusers, followed by Siem Reap and Battambang, he said.

The prisons department issued a statement through its Facebook page on Friday announcing the creation of a working group to tackle the issue, promising to provide rehabilitation and detoxification treatment to detainees; to explore the possibility of separating addicted inmates from their non-drug dependent peers; to root out drug distribution networks inside and outside of Cambodia’s prisons; to identify persistent drug users; and to collect evidence relating to drug use to be passed to officials responsible for administrative punishment.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/interior-ministry-admits-prison-drug-problem