Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid at the Home Ministry's monthly gathering at Putrajaya today. Pix by Ahmad Irham Mohd Noor

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will not be emulating Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s way of handling the drug menace.

Clarifying this today, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid said Malaysia cannot apply the Philippines’ template by sanctioning Malaysian law enforcers to gun down drug pushers.

Zahid, who is also Home Minister, said he agreed with the views put forward by his deputy, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed on the matter.

“Duterte's template cannot be used here.

“We have our own Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department under the police for enforcement and the National Anti-Drugs Agency (Nada) for rehabilitation as well as education.

"At the same time, we are also being assisted by the Customs Department (in the fight against drugs)," he told reporters after the Home Ministry's monthly gathering today.

Also present were Nur Jazlan, Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim and the directors-general of various agencies under the ministry.

Nur Jazlan was reported as saying that should Malaysia follow in the Philippines' footsteps, the backlash would be huge as it would go against international norms and policies. He said Malaysia might face implications such as economic sanctions from international organisations because the matter would be seen as flouting human rights.

Meanwhile, Zahid said he has instructed Nada and the police to weed out any possible shortcomings in the existing system so that improvements could be made.

He said the fight against drugs has reached a new level as one can now learn to make synthetic drugs via the internet.

“This is very dangerous. We have to gain the upper hand in this matter and outsmart the drug traffickers.”

Methamphetamine, ecstasy and ketamine are commonly-abused synthetic drugs that lead to the prevalence of drug-induced mental problems. Statistics from Nada show that there were 8,133 meth users in 2015, of whom more than 1,000 are new.

The figure had doubled from the previous year, where the total was 4,117 cases. In 2013, there were only 2,901 cases recorded.

The most vulnerable people were those aged between 17 and 40, particularly young adults.