Last Thursday (10th June 2021), FLE had conducted a virtual assembly entitled Ketum From Legal Perspectives. We had invited Ms. Wan Farhan Liyana, a criminal lawyer from Farhan Liyana & Associates to share some of her knowledge with the students of Smart College. The assembly had been joined by around 90 students.
A little bit of introduction about Ketum. Ketum or Kratom (scientific name : Mitragyna speciosa) is a tree-like plant from Southeast Asia that belongs to the same family of plants as coffee and gardenias. Ketum was said to have many benefits such as energy boost as well as for some mild pain relief. But, heavy consumption of ketum on a daily basis can result in dependency and addiction as it contain the active ingredient mitragynine which feels like a lot like being on morphine and heroin. Over the years, the government has been trying to ban the plant entirely as it is seen as a gateway drug and authorities fear that if the plant is not banned it will encourage abuse in the country.
In this session, Ms. Farhan had explained everything about the offence of possessing Ketum and its punishment. Here’s some of the snippet from the session.