KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Police efforts to conduct full-scale crime prevention patrols are being hampered by the added responsibility of supervising rehabilitated drug addicts.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said district police stations throughout the country have to supervise an average of 400 drug addicts who had been released from rehabilitation centres.

"My men have no time to look after them and we also have difficulty in supervising them.

"The addicts are supposed to undergo counselling and rehabilitation at Anti-Drug Agency (ADK) centres but when they are pushed to us, they are only required to report to us, failing which we have to look for them. This is time consuming," Musa said,

It is learnt that the ADK, which is supposed to be in charge of all aspects of the anti-drug programmes in the country, has about 7,000 personnel, double the number of the entire narcotics department in the police force.

However, since 2004, two drug rehabilitation centres have been closed, citing reasons of shortage of drug addicts.

At present, there are 29 such facilities nationwide.

Musa revealed that in the past 10 years, 69,000 (39%) drug addicts were placed in these centres but the police had to supervise a total of 175,000 (61%) nationwide.

"I have requested the (home) minister on several occasions that the ADK be fully responsible for the drug addicts because that was the reason the agency was first set up.

"We are not passing the buck but placing addicts under our supervision only blunts our effectiveness in combating crime," he said.

Meanwhile, Narcotics Department deputy director Deputy Comm Datuk Othman Harun said police needed all their manpower to go after traffickers and smugglers, who in recent times have become more brazen in their activities.

He revealed that over the past five years, the number of traffickers and smugglers caught carrying firearms had risen threefold, from 11 in 2004 to 36 up to September this year.

"This is the reason we have to have our all our men on the ground to gather intelligence and conduct operations to detain these violent and daring criminals," he said.