COMMENT | "Drug overdose is the worst, but a failure in drug policy is a nightmare." These are the sobering word of Johan (not his real name), a former drug addict who suffers from HIV and Hepatitis C.

Johan does not know how long he has left to live, yet he remains one of the lucky ones. Despite his struggle to overcome addiction, he has evaded the long arm of the law. However, countless drug users in Malaysia are not as fortunate. They end up in jail, trapped, and with seemingly no route to effective rehabilitation.

Punitive drug policies have hurt many individuals globally irrespective of gender, ethnicity and background. The 'War on Drugs' has been a failure as mass incarceration to address the issue has only amplified the public health threat and together with it a host of social and medical consequences.

Johan was once your average child who loved to make friends. Unfortunately, he also came from a broken home. His father was a drunk who neglected his family’s welfare. To drown out the pain of being abandoned, Johan turned to his friendships – one, in particular, drove him towards a life of drugs and crippling addiction.

This eventually led to unprotected sex with other men and the intentional use of illicit drugs for sexual purposes – a term known as ‘chemsex’, which is popular within...