KUCHING: The Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Ministry plans to develop a legislation regarding the usage of vape among students in Sarawak.
Its Minister, Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah, said this following a recent survey from the Ministry of Education, that found close to 20,000 cases of students vaping in schools across Malaysia.
“The vape issue is quite new to us, and I feel that once we get the latest data from the MOE, then we would know the severity of the cases here in the state.
“Also, once we see the data, then we get everyone to sit down, including relevant stakeholders to discuss on developing the legislation, for short term and long term,” she said.
She said this when met by reporters after officiating at the closing ceremony for ‘Seminar Pemerkasaan Jawatankuasa Pemulihan Dadah (JKPD) & One Stop Committee (OSC) MIDS Daerah 2025’ at Imperial Hotel here today.
Fatimah then stated that the purpose of formulating the legislation is to mitigate the usage of vape among the younger generation.
“This issue involved the youngsters, our future leaders and human capital. So we take a very serious action here in mitigating the usage.
“Plus, we all know that the ingredient inside the vape is harmful to these youngsters and their health.
“We do not want our future generation to look very unhealthy or ‘zombie-alike’.
“That is why we continue to fight, because we have been dealing with the drug issue for a very long time, even before the vape usage becomes the latest issue,” she added.
Deputy Education Minister, Wong Kah Woh, was recently reported as saying that 19,450 students were caught vaping last year, citing figures from the Students Discipline System (SSDM).
This is almost seven times more than the number of students caught smoking (3,704).
“We do not deny that there is an increasing trend in the number of vaping cases at schools.
“For all these cases, the ministry has taken action against students in accordance with the set guidelines,” Wong had said.
