The Star, Nov 29 - SOME 43 policemen, with the help of local villagers, chopped down and destroyed a ketum tree which had stood tall for 60 years in Kampung Badariang, near Grik, on Sunday.
It was not because the 30m tree – the only one of its type in the village – had posed a danger or harboured a nasty hornets’ nest.
The reason it was wiped out: the police felt it had contributed to the increasing number of drug addicts in the Hulu Perak district. For many years, addicts would pluck its leaves, brew them and drink the concoction to get a “high”.
“We destroyed the ketum tree to prevent the emergence of a new type of addiction among the young,” Hulu Perak deputy district police chief, Dept Supt Ismail Deraksa told Utusan Malaysia after leading his men and the villagers in cutting down and burning the tree late Sunday.
The paper reported that in Perlis and the interiors of Kedah, the ketum drink is easily available and can be bought at RM1 a glass.
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