Nilai UC work hard to keep drug menace away from its campus.
"I could have been the Prime Minister of this country. I speak five different dialogues and am a great communicator. But I will never know thanks to my drug addiction. I never got to fulfil my potential," says Faisal Abdullah. However, there is no embittered tone from the 57-year old reformed junkie who now works with National Anti-Drugs Agency as he is relieved to have managed to kick his habit after a 24-year battle. But in the intervening years, Faisal spoke of how he lost his family who virtually disowned him and slid from a promising career in the hospitality industry to a street side addict living in squalor.
"But thanks to the grace of God, I have been given a second chance at life. I even remarried and now pour my energies into helping others through National Anti-Drugs Agency whose programmes helped me kick the habit in the first place," he says, grinning broadly.
Faisal's lively talk on his first hand experiences with drugs was part of three day anti-drug awareness programme organised by Nilai University College's Department of Students Affairs & Sports (DSA). While Nilai University College (Nilai UC) has managed to keep its campus free of the drug menace, the administrators are not taking anything for granted.
"This is an on-going process of education and awareness campaigns like these help us get through to the students. They are at impressionable age and we must be alert to the dangers posed by drug abuse," says Michael Yei, Director of DSA. Besides the National Anti-Drugs Agency, Pemadam, Pengasih, Anti Drugs Associate Megaways rehabilitation centre, Persatuan Mencegah Dadah Malaysia, Prison Authorities and Polis DiRaja Malaysia.
The latter two organisations indulged in some scare tactics. The Prison Authorities demonstrated a caning session (with a cushion of course!) and cracking sound of the long cane definitely sent shivers down the spines of the watching staff and students. The police also set up a booth at Nilai UC's Resource Centre which was turned into an anti-drugs exhibition centre with their D8 unit explaining to students the dangers of designer drugs. The K9 unit also made quite an impression as the sniffer dogs showed their prowess by locating tiny amounts of drugs hidden in suitcases.
Students, especially those from the Nursing faculty, were especially keen to learn more. The nursing students were told how to spot drug addicts and recognise tell-tale symptoms. They were also told not to have preconceived ideas of how a drug addict would look like and were shown a video of glue-sniffers as young as 12!
Nilai UC President, Prof Emeritus Tengku Dato' Shamsul Bahrin, noted in his opening speech that despite the many stern laws that exist in Malaysia, statistic estimate that about 4% of the population are involved in illicit drugs. "We practice a zero tolerance policy here at Nilai UC as far as drugs are concerned. We will not hesitate to report anyone caught using or dealing drugs to the authorities," he warns.
"I will also be proposing to the authorities that anyone involved in illicit drugs in any institution of higher learning be denied re-entry to another institution until they are properly verified and declared 'cured'. This is to make sure students do not think they can get away with this by simply switching universities," says Tengku Shamsul.
