More than 1.56 tonnes of confiscated drugs went up in flames yesterday as the government set the contraband ablaze at the capital’s Boeung Trabek High School for International Anti-Drug Day.

The drugs included 67.4 kilograms of methamphatamine, 1.5 tonnes of dried marijuana, 1.5 kilograms of marijuana oil, and 350 grams of heroin, said Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Sieng Sok.

In the first six months of 2016, Phnom Penh has recorded 156 drug crackdowns with 517 people arrested, 35 of whom were women, said Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Khuong Sreng. Nationwide figures were not available for this period.

Deputy Prime Minister Ke Kim Yan, presiding over the event, requested the authority use rehabilitated drug users as educational agents to encourage their peers to stop using drugs because "they will listen to them".