Malaysia executed 229 people convicted of drug trafficking in the past 30 years, parliament was told today.

The figure was presented during a debate on how to handle drug addicts, which included a suggestion that they should be supplied with drugs by the government and exiled to a remote island, the national Bernama news agency reported.

"We notice that the mandatory death sentence on drug traffickers has not been effective in curtailing drug trafficking," ruling party legislator Baharum Mohamed was quoted as saying.

"This is because drug traffickers want to get rich quickly while the addicts want to die quickly," said Baharum, who suggested the island solution.

But Internal Security Ministry parliamentary secretary Abu Seman Yusop, who provided the figure of the number of people hanged, said the mandatory death penalty for trafficking would not be lifted as it remained a deterrent.

The government was, however, willing to examine a proposal that it supply drugs to addicts for free, he said, pointing out that there were licensed opium shops in the past.

"Supplying drugs to addicts for free needs to be studied in terms of its pros and cons although there were licensed opium dens in the past," he was quoted as saying.

In February, parliament was told that Malaysia had executed a total of 358 people by hanging in the past 24 years, mostly for drug offences.