Drug rehabilitation centre in Malaysia: private residential treatment
Salus is a private drug rehabilitation centre in Malaysia, offering drug rehab as a voluntary, 90-day residential stay in Cyberjaya, Selangor. If someone you love is using syabu, heroin, ganja, ketum or another drug, this page explains what stopping involves and how drug addiction treatment works here. Care is medical and psychological, with 24-hour care and medical oversight.
Signs a drug problem has taken hold
Different drugs leave different marks, but families describe a shared pattern: a person who is changing and cannot explain why.
- Sleep has stopped making sense: days awake, then a day or two of sleeping through.
- Money and belongings do not add up, and the explanations get thinner each time.
- Mood swings between restless and over-confident, then flat, irritable or withdrawn.
- Old friends have gone quiet and new contacts appear who are never introduced.
- Suspicion or fear: checking windows, accusing relatives, hearing things. Heavy use can cause psychosis, which needs medical attention, not an argument.
- Attempts to stop alone fail within days, with aches, restlessness, low mood or cravings pulling the drug back.
How drug treatment works at Salus
A medical review, a psychiatric assessment and a psychological assessment come first, and the diagnosis decides the therapy. The medical team manages withdrawal safely and comfortably, and psychiatrists look for the depression, anxiety, trauma or sleep problems that often sit underneath drug use. For methamphetamine, Salus uses the Matrix Model, a structured programme built for stimulant dependence.
01
Assessment and medical care
The medical team reviews how the body is doing and whether medical support is needed to be safe and comfortable. A psychiatrist assesses mood, sleep and anything else sitting underneath.
02
Sleep, food and routine
The early weeks are built around rest and a steady day, because a worn-out body cannot do the work of recovery.
03
Therapy matched to the drug
CBT, motivational interviewing, REBT, SFBT and trauma-focused work, chosen by the diagnosis. The Matrix Model adds group work, family education and relapse prevention for syabu.
04
Family and community
Family sessions explain the crash, the cravings and the timeline. A Salus Clinician plans activity and community across six areas of life, alongside medical care.
05
Going home with a plan
A written aftercare plan and continued support, prepared from the first week.
Ninety days, residential, in Cyberjaya.
A private room, all meals, 24-hour care with medical oversight, individual and group therapy, family sessions and a written plan for going home. One price, with nothing added later.
90 days
Four phases: Restore, Connect, Participate, Integrate
RM7,000 per month
All-inclusive
What is stopping like for syabu, heroin, ganja and ketum?
Stopping syabu (methamphetamine) is not medically dangerous in the way alcohol withdrawal can be, but it is hard. NIDA places the peak two to three days after last use, easing over about a week, while low mood, anxiety, poor concentration and cravings can last weeks. Heroin and other opioids bring aches, sweating, diarrhoea, vomiting, restlessness and insomnia. The WHO warns that overdose risk is high when someone returns to opioids after a period without, because tolerance falls quickly.
Ganja is often dismissed as harmless. NIDA says studies estimate 22 to 30 per cent of people who use cannabis have cannabis use disorder, and withdrawal brings irritability, anxiety, restlessness, low appetite and insomnia. No medication is approved for it, so treatment is behavioural. A Universiti Sains Malaysia study of 293 ketum users in Penang, Kedah and Perlis found 55 per cent had severe dependence, with sleeplessness and anxiety the most reported withdrawal symptoms.
What about ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine?
NIDA says MDMA (ecstasy) is potentially addictive, can push body temperature dangerously high in warm places such as clubs, and in regular users is linked to poor sleep, depression, anxiety and memory problems. Chronic ketamine use can damage the bladder and urinary tract. A medical review in the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings reports that symptoms usually clear when patients stop, though damage can be permanent in long-term cases.
Cocaine has no approved medication for dependence, according to NIDA, so treatment rests on behavioural work such as cognitive behavioural therapy and contingency management. That is where a residential stay helps: someone who is away from supply, sleeping and eating properly, and seen by a psychiatrist can start the psychological work that actually changes the pattern.
Is private drug treatment voluntary, and what does the law say?
Salus is voluntary: the person comes because they have agreed to, often after a family conversation. The scale of the problem is large. AADK recorded 192,857 people in 2024, with amphetamine-type stimulants (mostly syabu) accounting for 139,909 cases and cannabis for 7,121, up 63.4 per cent. In 2025 it recorded 191,832 people receiving treatment.
On the law, we can only report what the sources say. AADK says that at its voluntary centres no legal action is taken against clients who come in. An amendment to Act 283 took effect on 22 August 2025, and AADK's director general said its powers, once limited to drug addicts, now also cover drug and substance abusers, with an emphasis on treatment and rehabilitation. The Malaysian Insight reported in 2022 that mitragynine, the active substance in ketum, is a controlled psychotropic poison under the Poisons Act 1952.
How do I help someone who uses drugs and refuses help?
Do not argue with someone who is high or paranoid. If they are psychotic, violent or have collapsed, call 999 first. Otherwise, pick a calm, private time, describe two or three specific things you have noticed, and say you are worried. Offer a specific next step, such as a conversation with a clinician, rather than an ultimatum.
You can call Salus without the person knowing, describe what you are seeing and hear the options. Sometimes a clinician's voice lands differently from a relative's. Families often need several conversations, and a bad week afterwards is not a sign that treatment has failed. Once the person is here, family sessions are part of the plan.
Questions families ask.
What does a 90-day drug rehab stay cost?
RM7,000 per month, all-inclusive: about RM21,000 for the full 90 days. The fee includes your family member's room and meals, 24-hour care and medical oversight, weekly individual therapy, daily small-group sessions, family sessions and a written aftercare plan. Payment plans can be discussed.
How long does treatment for syabu or heroin take?
The programme is 90 days. NIDA says most people need at least three months in treatment, and cravings can return months after stopping, triggered by places, people and stress. Salus uses the Matrix Model for methamphetamine, which combines individual and group therapy, family education and relapse prevention, and plans the return home from the first week.
Can someone who uses ketum or ganja really need residential treatment?
Yes, when stopping alone keeps failing. The USM ketum study found 55 per cent of users had severe dependence and about a third had severe withdrawal when they tried to stop, and NIDA estimates 22 to 30 per cent of cannabis users have a use disorder. Daily use that cannot be cut down, with poor sleep and anxiety, is a reason to ask for an assessment.
Is drug treatment at Salus confidential?
The first call is confidential, and you can phone without the person knowing. Guests stay as guests of the hotel, so nothing marks them out as being in treatment. Clinical information is held only by the care team, and updates go to family with the guest's consent.
What happens after the 90 days?
Guests go home with a written aftercare plan, continued counselling and a support group. Because cravings can return in the months after treatment, the plan covers sleep, routine, people and purpose as well as triggers, and families help write it. Support continues after the person has left.
The clinical team behind Solace Asia.
Salus is part of Solace Wellbeing Group, which opened Solace Asia in 2014. It shares Solace's clinical leadership, methods and advisory board of senior Malaysian psychiatrists and clinicians, in a residential setting designed to cost less.
2014
Solace Asia founded
5,000+
Patients treated across the group
90
Days in the programme
Other conditions we treat.
- Start herePrivate rehab Malaysia
- PerakDrug rehab Perak
- JohorDrug rehab Johor
- SelangorPrivate drug rehab Selangor
- Kuala LumpurDrug rehab Kuala Lumpur
- AlcoholAlcohol addiction treatment
- Syabu and iceSyabu addiction treatment
- Heroin and opioidsHeroin and opioid treatment
- KetumKetum addiction treatment
- Prescription medicinesPrescription medicine addiction
- GamblingGambling addiction treatment
- Gaming and internetGaming and internet addiction
- Mood and dependenceDual diagnosis treatment
- OCDOCD and addiction treatment
Insights
Further reading
Pusat Serenti (PUSPEN): what it is and how to apply
Pusat Serenti is now called PUSPEN. Who goes there, how long it lasts, what happens inside, how a family can apply, and what a private option looks like.
8 min readSyabu and methamphetamine: what families in Malaysia need to know, and where help starts
Syabu is now the drug behind most recorded addiction cases in Malaysia. Here is how dependence takes hold, what the first weeks off it are like, and what treatment that works looks like.
5 min readKetum (kratom) addiction in Malaysia: how it starts, and how treatment works
A USM study found over half of ketum users were severely dependent. Here are the signs, where ketum stands in Malaysian law now, and how treatment works.
6 min read
Sources
- 1Agensi Antidadah Kebangsaan via Bernama, 13 May 2025: 192,857 people recorded in 2024, amphetamine-type stimulants 139,909 cases, cannabis 7,121 cases
- 2Agensi Antidadah Kebangsaan via Kosmo, 15 March 2026: 191,832 people recorded and treated in 2025
- 3National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK), Pusat Pemulihan Penagihan Narkotik Sukarela (PUSPEN S)
- 4Buletin TV3, 22 August 2025: Akta Penagih dan Penyalah Guna Dadah dan Bahan in force, statement by AADK Director General Datuk Ruslin Jusoh
- 5Bernama, voluntary drug treatment under the AADK programme and the amended Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983, effective 22 August 2025
- 6NIDA, Methamphetamine research topic: effects, withdrawal and treatment
- 7NIDA, Cannabis (Marijuana) research topic
- 8NIDA, Cocaine research topic
- 9NIDA, MDMA (Ecstasy or Molly) research topic
- 10Pappachan JM et al, Multiorgan dysfunction related to chronic ketamine abuse, Proceedings (Baylor University Medical Center), 2014
- 11NCBI StatPearls, Opioid Withdrawal
- 12World Health Organization, Opioid overdose fact sheet
- 13Darshan Singh et al, Universiti Sains Malaysia: severity of ketum dependence among 293 users in Penang, Kedah and Perlis
- 14The Malaysian Insight, 10 June 2022: legal status of ketum under the Poisons Act 1952
- 15NIDA, Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: how long does treatment take
This page is general information, not medical advice, and does not replace an assessment by a qualified clinician. If someone is in immediate danger, call 999.
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