Almost 10,000 people have been arrested in drug-related cases this year and more than 150 kilograms of narcotics confiscated, while the number of addicts in the country increased by about a third compared to 2015, a document obtained yesterday says.

Signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and dated Tuesday, the document says police and military police have dealt with 4,191 cases related to drugs so far this year, and arrested a total of 9,802 people.

The amount of confiscated drugs, meanwhile, totalled 157.8 kilograms, while a survey found 18,554 drug addicts in Cambodia – a nearly 30 percent increase from last year. The document does not provide any further information about the survey, or explain how it was conducted.

After providing the statistics, the prime minister instructs various arms of the government to do more to fight drug trafficking and use next year.

“The Labour Ministry must organise anti-drug educational programs for workers in factories, businesses, [workshops for] handicrafts and on construction sites,” it says. “The Telecommunications Ministry must instruct mobile phone providers to often send anti-drug education messages to their users.

“The Tourism Ministry must assign owners and managers . . . to post or place educational messages banning the trafficking and use of drugs. ”It also calls on prisons to separate those jailed for drug cases in order to stop them networking behind bars.