Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed says around 500 falls into the drug epidemic each year and that this was a huge challenge for the work to eradicate the problem from the country.
He made the remarks at the ceremony held to mark the 90th anniversary of the Maldives Police Service at the synthetic track in Hulhumalé.
The Commissioner said that a lot of the youth are growing drug habits and that this is being accelerated by the number of new drugs on the market these days.
He said each year around 400 to 500 people take up a drug habit.
Hameed noted that Police are deeply concerned with this statistic and said that Police along with other relevant agencies must work together to curb the numbers.
The Commissioner further said that the Police have increased the number of drugs it has been seizing in anti-narcotics operations under its strategic action plan against narcotics.
He also said that while apprehending criminals and taking action against them is the main purpose of the police force, it was hard to perform their duties because of the lack of adequate resources.
He added that the police force has brought changes to its working environment but said that more reform is still required.
